Path of Grace
by EmInArEvOl
Summary: Summary: A Young Izumi's heart is broken when she finds out she's quirkless. But after stumbling on a TV interview of a quirkless but successful actress, she thinks she found her path to greatness. OOCFem!Deku Crossposted to AO3
1. Izumi Midoriya: Origin

The Path of Grace

Summary: A Young Izumi's heart is broken when she finds out she's quirkless. But after stumbling on a TV interview of a quirkless but successful actress, she thinks she found her path to greatness. Fem!Deku

Warning: Fem!Izuku

Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

Author's Note: I am so irresponsible. Honestly. I have other fanfictions I have not updated for years! And yet, here is another one! I hope I can actually update this more regularly than all my other would-be stories.

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When I was young, I learned that all men are not created equal. This was the reality I learned about society at the young age of four.

From then on, that had been my first and last setback.

It all began in China, in Qingqing City. There was news that a baby that gave off light was born. Ever since then, super powers were discovered in various places, and time passed without the cause being identified. Before we knew it, the supernatural became normal, and dreams became reality. The world has become a superhuman society; about 80% of the world's population now has some kind of special trait. In this world swirling with chaos, the profession that everyone once dreamed about and admired came into the limelight. That profession is...

A young middle school girl ran across the pavement in an early spring morning. As she ran with a skip to her step and wide beaming smile she noticed a crowd gathering near the train station. She took a look at her wrist watch and seeing that it was still early, decided to squeeze in between the crowd. On the train platform was a giant with a shark head.

"Whoa, that's a huge villain." The greenette murmured as she pushed to the front to see the altercation easier. Around her she can hear people talking about the gigantic petty thief or calling to their office to inform them they would be late. As the girl finally got to the front she exclaimed happily seeing he local heroes. "Death Arms, Backdraft and Kamui Woods! The girls would be so jealous!" Izumi quickly took out her phone and started recording the heroes. She'll make her notes later but she wanted to record Kamui Woods for her classmates. As Izumi mouthed Kamui's signature attack ' _ **Pre-Emptive Binding Lacquered Chain Prison'**_ while the hero prepared the attack; the middle-schooler had to blink back the dust that threatened to get into her eyes as another hero kicked the petty thief down.

"Canyon Cannon!" shouted a heroine with another gigantification quirk. Izumi sighed as she stopped recording and hid her phone as she took out her notebook so-named "Hero Analysis of the Future #13". She muttered to herself as she started to walk away from the scene. "Looks like another heroine who's going for the sexy look to advertise herself." Izumi had to sigh but smiled brightly as she put away her notebook and started sprinting towards her school, Orudera Middle School. As she entered her school she was greeted loudly by different students. She smiled widely and gracefully nodded her head towards those who greeted her. A couple of girls crowded near her. "Midoriya Kaicho, you were almost late!" She was a fellow 3rd year who had long black hair tied to a pony tail. Her make-up, though light was a bit of a mess though.

Izumi smiled sheepishly. "Oh, you all know me. I'm a hero otaku. There was a villain making a mess of the station downtown. I had to take a look." Opening her bag she took out her small make-up kit and got out wet wipes. "Akugatawa-san, your make-up is a mess. Here, let me." She started fussing over the older girl's make up and cleaned her up. After a minute or two, the 3rd year student had a simple but pretty make-up on her face. It wasn't overtly obvious but it brought out her best features. The other girls tittered and asked Izumi to teach them to do the same but the first warning bell chimed so they all went in to go to their classes. Izumi promised to be outside for lunch if the other girls wanted to talk to her.

As she came into her class, she was greeted enthusiastically by those already there. Some boys clambered over to offer if she needed anything that morning. Izumi just smiled gently and shook her head no. Walking up to her best friend who had his feet on his desk she nudged his leg and raised an eyebrow. The boy, Bakugou Katsuki just scoffed and took down his feet from the table. She grinned and placed a bento on his table before going to her seat. Her other classmates were already there clamouring to talk to her.

"Izumi-Kaicho! We heard you were at that villain attack at the station. Please, you have to be more careful!" One of the girls spoke up. A boy near them quipped up after hearing the girls. "Izumi-chan! You're quirkless, you shouldn't be near such violence!" A lot of the boys and girls near them agreed and Izumi felt Kacchan's gaze on her after hearing the news. Izumi sighed, "Everyone, I'm not that fragile, you know."

The girls around her nodded their head vigorously; "We know that Izumi-sama. But you're our graceful school idol and student body president! You can't stay near brutes! Even if they're heroes! We know you're a hero otaku and that you're a great fighter but you have to stay away from scenes like that! Isn't that right Bakugou-kun?!" The girls turned to the #1 male student in their grade. Though Bakugou was known as a bully to most; he didn't really bully Izumi even if she was quirkless; at least not more so than others, anyways. Honestly, the rest of the school were wondering if they had a 'Beauty and the Beast' cliché with their resident brute genius and their graceful ingénue.

Bakugou was about to start his tirade on his childhood friend before the last bell rang and their erstwhile annoying teacher came in with a stack of paper. Their class scrambled to get to their seats while Izumi sighed in relief and took out her notebook to finish her notes on the new heroine that debuted and update her notes on the other heroes.

After roll call, the teacher started their morning agenda, "Since you're all third years it's time for you to think seriously about your future. I'll pass out hand-outs for your future plans now, but..." The teacher pauses and roughly grabs the papers he set on the desk; while the students start activating their quirks.

"... You're all..." With a huge grin turns around and throws the papers out and happily announce, "... pretty much planning to go into the hero course, right?"

As the teacher says this students started showing off their quirks with a jubilant cry. While Bakugou once more had his feet on the table, Izumi had a pained but indulgent smile painted on her face. "Yes, yes, you all have wonderful quirks! But using your powers at school is against the rules!" The teacher cheerfully admonishes the class. Of course, Bakugou speaks up, "Teach! Don't lump us all in the same group. I'm not gonna be stuck at the bottom with the rest of these rejects!"

Izumi disguises her laugh as a cough while everyone else blew up in indignation. Izumi chose not to react and continued in writing her notes. Checking her schedule for today; she would be busy tonight.

Bakugou continued in belittling their classmates even as Izumi ignored them, "You all should shut up like the extras you are!"

The teacher made a considering noise and read from his notes. "Oh, if I remember correctly, you want to go to U.A. High, right, Bakugou?" Everyone started reacting with how U.A. was known for the almost impossible acceptance rate. Izumi's had clenched around her pen and laid it soundly on the table. If the teacher was announcing Bakugou's application it was possible she would be exposed too. But she was ready; they don't need to know yet. Bakugou continued his prideful tirade while standing on his desk. "I aced the mock test! I'm the only one at this school who could possibly get into U.A. I'll definitely surpass All Might and become the top hero! My name'll be inscribed on the list of top earners!"

Teacher looked worried and checked his notes again. "Oh yeah, Midoriya-chan wanted to go to U.A., too, right?" This, of course, sparked another commotion. "Izumi-sama! You can't! You're a star! An Idol! You can't be a hero! You're quirkless but so talented, don't waste your time and just go straight on being an idol!" Were the words that spilled out from the boys and girls.

While Bakugou was the #1 male student in both academics and athletics, Izumi was the #1 female student. While she excelled on both academics and athletics as well, she was more known for her artistic pursuits. Music, drawing, and dancing; she's won a few regional competitions as well as some national ones recently. That's also why she would be busy later tonight; she was graduating from her training as a Maiko and unto a certified Geisha by performing at a tea house for a party of the local municipal ministry. Tonight was her Mizuage. (1) Izumi had joined an old, very well-known and respected Okiya at the early age of 5. Of course, she didn't actually board with the Okiya, that wasn't practiced nowadays anyways, but she did have lessons every evening at the start.

Bakugou growled low in his throat at hearing her plans to go to the same highschool as he. "Oi, Baka-Izu. You're quirkless! If you were talentless, I'd call you below the rejects. Rejoice; I'll probably consider you as a good leading lady to any biographical movie I'll have in the future!" This silenced the whole class who then stared suspiciously at the sudden (slightly) blushing blond; while Izumi actually whipped out a fan to cover her face that was flaming red at the moment. Their classmates muttered to each other, "Definitely a 'Beauty and the Beast' cliché between the two. Bakugou is such a Tsundere. Do you think it's also a 'Childhood friend and crush' cliché too?" While their teacher actually snapped a picture of his two top students while they were preoccupied with their embarrassment; there was a bet among the teachers about the two.

The class was snapped out of their stupor when Izumi soundly closed her fan and willed her blush away. Schooling her expression as much as she could so that she would appear demure but reserved she smiled gently towards her class. Most boys and some girls of course looked a bit love-struck as she showed her school idol façade. "U.A. may be known for being the best hero school in the world but what most forget it is not just for hero studies. U.A. is also known for having the best and most competitive General Education, Business and Support courses in the world as well. Majority of their classes already count for many focus classes for University courses for a lot of the Major and Minor courses. In short, U.A. is the Ivy League of high schools, the top choice school in the world."

Her tone while soft belayed that there was a reason why she was also a respected martial artist in the area. The reason why she was currently the student council president was not only due to her academic propensity and idol-like grace but also because she was a disciplined martial artist. This was the biggest factor why she wasn't as bullied as she could've been as one of the few quirkless in the whole school. Also, the fact that she was able to corral the resident bad boy, Bakugou Katsuki, into being the student council treasurer also held into her favour.

Playing into her strengths she looked down as if her classmates hurt her with their words. Biting her lower lip and looking up through her eyelashes and teary eyes she wobbly asked, "Do you not want me having the best education for myself? I know that there are more versatile STEM schools but U.A. is as good if not better for it. It's been my dream school since me and Kacchan were kids too!"

This, of course, made everyone, even the teacher, try to console her that, yes, she deserved the best education and that she should be able to get into her dream school. Bakugou raised an eyebrow at his friend, wondering how everyone fell for her acting as was usual. He wasn't immune to it, he just knows better. For all that they've known each other; Bakugou knew that Izumi would never give up on being a hero.

Soon enough the school bell rang signalling the end of homeroom hour. All through the day, students from various classes and years tried to talk to her about her decision to apply or U.A. Combined with her duties as Student Council president, she was quite busy that day. As the day winded down and the final bell rang; she was assigning the various students to their weekly school chore schedule while everyone else packed up and started leaving with only the remaining students beginning clean-up of the room. Bakugou waited for Izumi by the door as she helped clean the board.

"Oi, Baka-Izu; when's the party gunna be?" Bakugou was asking about the party to celebrate her Mizuage. Izumi hummed as she took out her phone and stood next to Katsuki. "It's going to have to be next week Sunday. We have that student council meeting across all the sections and years this Saturday. That reminds me, can you finish the budget plan for this year by Wednesday next week latest? I want to see if we need to run any fundraisers for some extra activities I want to run by the principal." The two started their walk out the school while passing through the other classes to check if there were students cleaning the rooms and halls. "Che, yeah, yeah. I'll get it done. But… uh… you're not going to…. Uh… you know... for your miuzage?" Bakugou looked to the side blushing slightly and gently scratching his cheek with his forefinger in embarrassment.

Izumi giggled at her friend and whispered so that only he could hear her. "Give my virginity away? That's been banned since the 60's, Kacchan. Mizuage is purely ceremonial now. I just need to prove I already have all the skills of a senior Maiko: tea ceremony, dances and other performances." She stifled her blush and nudged Bakugou with an elbow. "Why, you offering to bid for mine?" She heard his quirk activating out of embarrassment; taking a peak at his fully red face he sputtered, "Go take a swan dive off a roof! Quirkless Baka-onna!" Then the explosive boy ran ahead and dragged his posse with him shouting about the arcade while the two boys Bakugou dragged waved Izumi good bye.

Izumi stopped short of the gate and waited until Bakugou and his friends were out of sight and snapped her tessen open to hide her face. She stood there for a few minutes to mutter to herself. "Oh my god. You're an idiot Izumi. How can you say that to him?!" were amongst the lines she mumbled. After a minute or two to settle herself she started her walk back home. She had her phone out and was sending out the video she shot earlier to her classmates from the Okiya while also updating her hero blog as well.

One of her favourite tags had a few new posts today; **Sawada Kyoko** was trending right now because of the new fundraiser she was spearheading, "Mental Health for the Quirkless." As one of the few but highly influential celebrities who were quirkless; she had a voice equivalent to the top 10 Heroes. Married to the Vongola Inc.'s 10th Generation Head and a successful actress, model and fashion designer; she pursued equal rights to quirked and quirkless individual in an ever diminishing quirkless world. When Kyoko was born, a person only had a 40% chance of getting a quirk. A decade later children had half a chance to be born with a quirk. Now, she's nearly 40 with three beautiful children; two of whom had a quirk. The current statistic was that there are only 20% of the world's total population who are quirkless. One of whom was her eldest daughter.

She knew the stigma all too well of standing out from a crowd; whether because they're popular because they're unfairly pretty or clumsy and idiotic. She and her husband knew and understood how it hurt to be so separated from everyone else. So that's why she has been working to make life easier for the quirkless like her.

This she had written down in her autobiographical book entitled, "Surrounded by Power but I'm Just the Quirkless Wife". Izumi had bought the book when she was 8 years old and still read it from time to time. The book was in her room worn and well used with various sticky notes and earmarks throughout the years. All Might was her crime fighting superhero idol but Sawada Kyoko was her everyday "I'm just an ordinary quirkless girl" heroine. Izumi remembered Kyoko-sama's words on an interview back when she was 5 years old. This interview changed her life; while she was looking for All Might on TV it seemed like fate that she would hear the words, '… even though you're quirkless.'

This had grabbed her attention while she was channel surfing. It had only been a few months since the fateful day she was told to give up on hoping to ever having a quirk or becoming a hero. For so long having that great big courageous smile of All Might was her inspiration but upon seeing that demure but beautiful smile still so full of courage from Sawada Kyoko, it hit her. The smile of a quirkless woman, who is braving the ever-changing world around her; leaving her and those like her behind to cower behind those who had quirks, and yet she wants to be the face of courage for those like her. That smile had sent her into frenzy that until now; Izumi reminisces happily over.

She knew that her mother would never allow her to be a hero; especially after her diagnosis of quirklessness. Midoriya Inko is a very overprotective mother. And if she has to lie to her daughter about being the 'Prettiest and best hero ever', she knew never to outright put her daughter down.

But Izumi knew.

Izumi knew that Inko wouldn't stop her from training in something else; in training to be just like Kyoko-sama. Heroines, even pre-quirk era superhero comics, always had them portray themselves as a lot more visually (and, in time, she'd understand the emphasis of sexuality in female heroes) appealing than male heroes. But the risqué appearances of the more popular female heroes never appealed to Izumi as much as just those heroes with raw power and great technique. Techniques she had seen on the many videos she watched online but was used as dances or in martial arts.

So one night, she called her daddy, Midoriya Hisashi, to talk about her dreams and plans. Midoriya Hisashi hasn't been home to his wife and daughter since Izumi was born but he made sure to take the time almost every day to talk to both of them together or individually. Now that Izumi learned to use the computer on her own; father and daughter had been talking more frequently.

"Dad… You know I'm quirkless right?" Izumi, while mature for her age, was still young and hurting. The fact that some kids, even her Kacchan had started leaving her behind because of her condition; hurts her. Hisashi as a leading expert of forensic sciences and head psychoanalyst of the worst villain cases in the world, understood his daughter; maybe more so than his wife. He was so removed from his family's everyday life that he's almost a stranger and had an objective view of his family. He loves them but he can't leave his job overseas where some of the worst atrocities of humankind still persist even in the age of heroes. "Yes, but don't let that put you down, darling. Remember those old comics I sent to you? Batman and Ironman? They don't have powers. They didn't have quirks but they were great heroes. The best heroes."

Izumi nodded enthusiastically

"I know, daddy. But I'm not rich like them. I'm not as smart as them. But others like Catwoman, Black Widow, Daredevil, Green Arrow, Hawkeye! They're all unenhanced, no power, quirkless but they were heroes too! Some of them graceful and deadly, strong and skilled, fast and vicious; they're like those really old spy movies without superheroes too! Even without a quirk, can I be a hero too?" She already had her answer from her mother; "I'm sorry" and crying. As if it was her mother's fault that Izumi didn't have the weapons the skills to be a hero without a quirk. As if apologizing for a future of let downs that without a quirk she couldn't ever achieve her dream.

Being quirkless is a bad beat; one that she will power through.

"Of course, darling. You can be whoever you want to be. You'll be the best hero because you're already mine." Hisashi smiled widely just like her daughter. "If we're talking about those old superhero and spy movies; you need to train, Izu-chan. I have a friend who runs a performing arts school and owns the Okiya next to it."

Hisashi's job is a lie. Not all of it, but it was a lie nonetheless. The political landscape of the world hasn't changed since the last war; one instigated by that almost mythical but evil man who had power to monopolize all the quirks in the world. Hisashi works with the United Nations in the shadows to keep the world safe from the threats the world forgot in the face of the age of heroes. And most of all, he wants to keep his family safe. If his daughter is determined to become a hero without powers; he'd rather orchestrate it from the shadows. The performing arts school he plans to send his daughter to specialize in training women to be the perfect spies and assassin. It was a bonus that both the legitimate cover of the spy school and the spy training are the same. Except that the legitimate performing arts school didn't teach their students to seduce and kill. Just like the comics he sent to his daughter, the place was practically the Red Room but more humane.

But as Izumi grew up, she knew. She was the most prolific student of the cover performing arts school, after all.

Izumi is really smart.

So she nods happily to her dad's suggestion and soon after she's attending dance classes and signed up with the Okiya training to be a Geisha too. So she learned to be a proper lady; this was her path to becoming a hero.

This is her path to grace.

After walking for along her normal path home she starts her trek under a tunnel; though it felt slightly ominous to her today. She'd crossed this tunnel hundreds of times but today, everything about it just felt off. The inky darkness of the passage and the bright sunlight ahead makes everything hard to see. Hearing the too loud sound of sludge sluicing through sewer underneath the street was… Wait… What?

Turning her head towards the one closed sewer grate in the whole tunnel suddenly burst open with what looked like a sludge monster suddenly lunge at her; Izumi didn't scream but did drop down to scramble away from the attacking monster. Seeing the sludge monster's pants and its beady eyes, she knew she was facing someone misusing their quirk. "Come on girlie, why don't you be my hero and let me borrow your meat suit?" Izumi's appreciation for gallows humour showed up at a very inopportune time as she let out an amused huff. "No thanks, Mr. Villain. If I'm right, and I know I am, you're going to fill my body up with your slimy sludgy self and walk away like its nothing, right? What, a hero on your tail? And what's with your quirk anyways? You could've probably worked in the AV industry but your sludge body smells like actual garbage. You just had to get the short end of the stick in quirk genes."

In most worlds, Midoriya Izumi or Izuku whether as a boy or a girl had a bad habit of muttering under their breath because of a lack of brain-to-mouth filter. In this world, Izumi also had that unfortunate personality quirk of having no brain-to-mouth filter too but because she'd been exposed for so long to one Bakugou Katsuki but had that positive influence (is it positive?) of her peers in her dance school she became sarcastic instead. It had earned her quite a bit of trouble with bullies and street ruffians; but having her training helped out a lot.

She never said she would be graceful in her speech and thought process.

Mr. Sludge villain growled lowly, "Fuck that! I would've been the perfect actor for tentacle porn! I was born for the role! Those girls were just too squeamish of my manly smell!" Oops, looks like Izumi hit a sore spot for this unfortunate villain. "Doesn't matter! Stay still girlie and let me show you what those stuck up AV bimbos missed out!" Looks like this guy just forgot that he was running and went straight to the gutter because he's salty that he can't score some.

"I can hear you, bitch!"

Oops, looks like Izumi was speaking aloud.

Just as Sludge villain lunged towards Izumi who brought out her Tessen to try and fight back, the open manhole that Sludge came out of spewed out a large figure. "No need to worry, for I am here!" roared All Might his tagline.

"What the-?" Before sludge villain could say more, the number one hero shouted his attack. "Delaware Smash!" using his thumb and middle finger All Might sent a wave of pure air pressure against the sludge villain, somehow rending it unconscious. Izumi watched, amazed at her superhero idol. Blinking back at her hero she bowed deeply and thanked the Number One hero. "Arigatou, All Might."

With his signature laugh he patted Izumi's head. "All in a day's work miss. You must've had great reflexes to have dodged Sludgy here. I've been chasing him for a while now; he's quite nimble!" Izumi grinned and looked at the congealed mass that was the villain that had tried to attack her earlier. "So… it looks like he's got a mutant type quirk. So his body is permanently sludge… yuck. I pity the people he's grown up with; the smell of sewage must've clung to him since his quirk activated. I mean I'm sure there are slime quirks but sometimes slime smells like nothing or if it did, it wouldn't be like Mister Sludgy here. I'm pretty sure he does smell like sewage 24/7 cause he said that he tried out being an AV actor and all. Those poor girls were probably naked and expecting a good time. Tentacle porn shooting but getting this guy is their partner and being traumatized." Izumi let her mouth run off; usually she had some restraint but only in school. While she likes her school enough; they always unconsciously belittle her for being quirkless. Flowery words with a bit of poison, always a good combination.

She noticed her idol's shoulders shaking and his hand covering his mouth from laughter. Grinning from where she was she started walking towards a conveniently placed trashcan near them. There was a 2 litre plastic bottle in the trash, picking it up she went towards the currently downed villain. "We should be able to put this guy in the bottle, in quirks like these; usually the best way to contain them is to get their facial features. The rest of their body is usually just slime and their other organs are formed when needed." As she bent down to start scooping the villain's face off the pavement; All Might squatted next to her and took the bottle from her. "Technically, it's vigilantism if you capture this guy; so let me do my job, young miss."

After gathering majority of the Sludge villain into the container he put away the bottle into one of the pockets in his cargo pants. Izumi picked up a shopping bag full of grocery items. All Might had been chasing Sludge for a few hours already and is at the limit of his quirk already.

"Again, you were very brave, little missy. Just the few minutes here and I know you're also very intelligent as well. Discerning the best way to capture this guy, you're probably knowledgeable about quirks as well. You did very well, but alas, I have to go. Putting people with mutation type liquid quirks into bottles like this is considered as inhumane." Said All Might. The number one hero didn't have time to spare, even for a potential fan. He need to go now.

"Thank you. But All Might before you go, can you give me your autograph? Oh, and don't forget your groceries." Izumi asked, she still had his shopping bag and was about to take out her notebook before All Might suddenly grabbed his groceries. Unfortunately, he had unwittingly grabbed Izumi's petite hand as well. "Sorry about that, missy. I have to go. See you again on the other side of the screen! Well then, I'm counting on your continued support!" Without so much as a preamble, All Might shot to the sky in a massive jump. He was only clued on that he had a passenger when he heard a chocked off scream behind him. "Wait…" Looking behind him he could see that Izumi was holding unto his leg tightly. "Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey! Let go! Your fanaticism is too much!"

Screaming out in fright, Izumi clutched on tighter on All Might as he tried to push her off. "You egoistical male! I did not want to hang off of you! You grabbed my hand! You let go of me and I'll die, idiot male!" Oops, her feminism is showing. She might love All Might and all but Izumi felt so disappointed that even the number one hero is SUCH a male! Jumping into conclusions that she would hang off of him like this.

"Oops, I'm sorry." All Might stopped trying to push off the young girl off his leg. "Please land soon; and at least answer my question for endangering me like this!" The speed they were going, Izumi felt like she would look comical with flappy skin around her eyes and her gums too if she wasn't used to Kacchan dragging her off like this once in a while. As she hugs his leg for a firmer grip, the sound of a cough barely reached her ears but she definitely heard it.

It occurred to her, 'is something wrong?' She's always trusted her instincts and it was warning her like crazy.

As they landed she sat on the floor of the roof they've landed on. She was slightly shaking but whether it was out of fear or adrenaline; even she couldn't tell. She's used to Kacchan and loved to ride roller coasters and other extreme rides, so she can't say what she was feeling right now. Only that… something felt wrong. This feeling she'd had for a few years already, ever since the slow decline of All Might's public appearances; she'd felt this ominous feeling.

"Good grief. If you talk to the people downstairs, I'm sure they'll let you down from here." All Might declared as he faced away from Izumi. "I'm seriously outta time, so I really must go." The hero started walking away towards the railings. Izumi felt, at that time, that she needed to stop All Might from leaving.

"All Might, wait! You owe me some answers! Even if unwittingly, you've endangered my life. I deserve to ask a few questions at least!" But All Might didn't want to waste more time. "No! I will not wait!"

"But-!" At that moment, memories filled Izumi's mind.

 _The doctor said, "You should probably give it up."_

Izumi's hand was frozen while reaching out to All Might.

 _Her mother cried, "I'm sorry, Izumi! I'm sorry. I'm sorry!"_

Her hand slowly retracted as she remembered words that Kacchan once told her.

" _What the hell can you do? You're quirkless!"_

 _Her classmates, "You're quirkless, Izumi-sama. Be an idol, we'll support you! But you can't be a hero, you can't!"_

She thinks, "That might be true… But even so, I… I've already come too far to give up now!'

So she shouts, "Even if I don't have a Quirk, can I become a hero? Can someone without a quirk be like you?" For so long, she'd already told herself she didn't need a quirk to become a hero. That she'd carve her path as the first quirkless hero I need be. But this feels like fate. The words, the question, that she had for so long stifled from asking aloud came out. It felt like she was validating her goals, but it also felt like she was setting herself up for heartbreak as well.

 **My meeting with All Might… This miracle… At the time, I couldn't even imagine how much it would change my fate.**

* * *

(1) So she's training to be a Geisha but in a more modern society. She's more of a professional entertainer for singing and dancing. She will also perform at various festivals as well. Her Mizuage, is definitely unlike the "Memoirs of a Geisha" mizuage. She just needs to prove she's mastered her craft enough to not need additional tutelage. Also, while there is conflicting information on the mizuage of olden geisha; because of modern misconception some do think they bid their virginity. I wanted a light-hearted but teasing vibe between Bakugou and Deku, so I wanted to break the ice between the two like this.

What do you guys think? Love it? Hate it? Leave a comment!


	2. What It Takes to Be a Hero

The Path of Grace

Summary: A Young Izumi's heart is broken when she finds out she's quirkless. But after stumbling on a TV interview of a quirkless but successful actress, she thinks she found her path to greatness.

Warning: Fem!Izuku

Izumi remembered watching that video clip of All Might so many times when she was young. His boisterous laugh, his unbeatable smile, his unfathomable strength; all Izumi ever wanted was to be like him. She also remembers the first time someone told her to give up on her dreams. That insensitive doctor and his blasé attitude towards shattering my dreams as he tells she was quirkless. Izumi emembered all the various put-downs her peers and classmates blasted at her. On how they looked down on her because she was quirkless. And most of all, Izumi remembered her mother apologizing while crying.

 **'But that's not it…That's not what I was looking for.'**

Shouting the questions she'd always stopped herself from asking…

" _ **Even if I don't have a Quirk, can I become a hero? Can someone without a quirk be like you?"**_

These questions felt like validations. Questions that plagued her whole life, questions that other planted into her; these were the questions she felt needed to be asked but had the courage to speak up about. But here was All Might, the one person who could answer her.

Hearing his voice, as if asking himself, "Without a quirk…?" That was before All Might suddenly started cursing. "Oh no, horii shitto, goddammit…" It confused Izumi but she hadn't looked up yet. But in that moment, she felt as if the whole world suddenly shifted in its axis. That something significant was happening.

She always trusted her instincts.

She looks up abruptly and watches as her idol deflated; steam rising up and covering most of the rooftop they were on. Izumi had to blink away her surprise as she looked at the nearly skeletal man before her. "I'd say that you should blow off some steam since you've been sounding so tense the past few minutes… but I didn't think it would be literally." Her nearly deadpan voice seems to have jolted Skele-All Might and the hero sputters to the side with blood splattering out. But the red cheeks of her idol gave away that he found her quip funny.

Wheezing a bit and wiping the remaining blood off his chin he says, "Please stop with the comments. My heart and lungs can't take it." Unfortunately, Izumi REALLY doesn't have a brain-to-mouth filter and her sarcasm game is always on. "Well, I'd say we're past that already since you so kindly deflated like someone punctured a blow up doll." Once more, All Might had to look to the side and cover his blood spluttering mouth to try and contain his laughter. "Please stop, little miss! I'll answer your questions but please stop with the quips!"

Let it be said that All Might appreciates jokes made in his expense; it was the whole reason why Sir Nighteye was so persistent to be his sidekick. Izumi sighed and stood up from where she had been kneeling the past few minutes and dusted her skirt. "Thank you, for humouring me… But All Might, I'm a bit more worried about you. I'd heard your cough on the way here and now looking at you so deflated and just laughing made you spew blood… What is happening? You'd been steadily decreasing your public appearance for the past few years. Is this current form of yours the reason why?"

All Might startles and looks more closely at Izumi. "Little Miss, your perception is extraordinary. Are you sure you're quirkless? It's almost just like my previous sidekick, Sir Nighteye whom can read the future. Most people would jump to the conclusion that I was a fake."

"With all due respect, All Might; I really am quirkless, extra toe-joint and all. Plus you, yourself, jumped to the conclusion that I would think that you were a fake; don't do unto others what you don't want others to do unto you. Also, assuming makes an ass out of you and me." She REALLY can't help it. But at least this time, it didn't cause the number one hero to start coughing, again. Instead the blond skeleton just scratched his cheek with his forefinger and had a smile grin on his face. "Warui na, ojou-chan. People tend to not take me seriously in this form; whether I'm working or just a civilian." Izumi cracked a grin and nodded. "So? Am I right? This form of yours is a limitation of yours? Certainly, I've actually seen that form as your PR and assistant the last few years. Which is why I wasn't so surprised really. I always trust my instincts; and this tells me exactly that my theory is correct."

All Might was silent for a minute or two, digesting the information that Izumi presented. It wasn't far-fetched after all; he's gone in public as his own secretary in his weakened form but nobody quite got it in the nose that it was one of his two forms. "You're quite smart, little miss. And your instincts are spot on. While I retain my strength in both forms, I tend not to use my strength, however diminished, in my smaller civilian form. Though to access my full power, I do need to muscle up. Much like, you know how the guys at the pool are constantly flexing and posturing. It's like that."

This gave the hero some pause. He just basically told this girl the basic information of his quirk and he didn't even hesitate. Did the girl have a polygraph quirk? But no, she said she was quirkless. At the same time, everything she's said and done up until now pointed to the girl having a psychic-based quirk at the very least. Before he could speak up again, the girl started, "And still, you're the fearless All Might! You save everyone with a smile, the greatest hero! BUT! That means that your power really is an augment type! I mean it was obvious from the start. But people have been speculating about your quirk for years and the main argument is that it was augment, emitter, or stockpile. Well it can be augment and emitter but I doubt it. The feel of you jumping like that, nothing was 'emitted' it was just a very powerful jump!"

All Might felt a lump lodge itself on his throat. Just a few minutes with him and already, this girl has guessed the quirk he's been hiding his whole hero career. Not even Sir Nighteye found out about his quirk until he outright explained it to his former sidekick. Pursing his lips in discontent he faced the girl fully with as much as a serious face he can muster. Which is utterly terrifying considering he looks like a somewhat healthy looking preserved corpse; he had to change his expression upon seeing Izumi's face contort into horror.

"I have a feeling you're about to say something serious and all… but please, All Might, never show that serious face of yours in that form. I felt like I was in a cliché horror movie where the monster is about to reveal its true form for the first time. I don't think your fellow heroes and even villains can stomach that look if you face them like that." Really, this girl needs to tone it down. It's becoming outright rude but still hilarious to hear her. This, unfortunately, has once more made All Might splutter in hilarity tinged with his blood.

"Do you ever stop with your remarks?" All Might asked wiping his mouth once more from blood. Izumi shrugs, "Sorry, I've been told I don't have a brain-to-mouth filter." All Might blinks, "Sarcasm is a sign of intelligence… I'd say you're quite a genius, then; of the smart aleck type." Izumi just grins widely, "I'd bet you're quite the same, All Might."

He just chuffs before he sobers back up and sits down, his back bracketed by the railing of the building. "But… a fearless smile... All that you've said hits too close to home. Since you've already deduced majority of my secret, a few more; doesn't hurt as much. All this information, please don't write about this online, even accidentally." Pulling up his shirt, it exposed the horrid and still raw-looking injury. "Five years ago, I got this injury from an enemy attack. Half of my respiratory organs were destroyed, and I lost my whole stomach. I've been emaciated from the numerous surgeries and aftereffects. Right now, I can only do hero work for about three hours a day.

This information sent a shiver down Izumi's spine and let out a whimper of fear. It confirmed a lot of her theories but also made her uncomfortable with the fact that whatever happened to All Might may have a correlation to her recent behaviour. For the last five years, not only had she pushed herself in training outside her Geisha training but also in different areas of self-defence and offense as well. It was also five years ago that she suddenly started forward in becoming a school idol in both her elementary and middle school years.

"This… can't be… Five years ago, was that the fight against Toxic Chainsaw?" To her, it felt like too much a coincidence but at the same time a chill is going up and down her spine about this so-called coincidence. But she'd rather focus on facts right now, so she'll ask the questions that relate to him and not her.

"You're well-informed; but a punk like that couldn't defeat me. The fight that made me like this wasn't made public to the world. I asked for it not to be made public. I will keep saving people with a smile! The Symbol of Peace must not be daunted by evil. I smile to how the pressure of heroes and to trick the fear inside of me." This took Izumi back and for once, she thought to herself, 'So, even he has things he fears.'

"Pros are always risking their lives. I cannot simply say, 'You can be a hero even without power.'" And it was these words that had finally hit it home for me. 'So even the great hero All Might only see the value of quirks in heroics.' Her silence felt heavier than All Might expected, for a girl who spoke her mind; it must have been a heavy blow for her to be silent now.

Standing up, he needed to make sure this girl knew and understood the dangers being a hero is. "You have wonderful insight, young miss. Almost as good as some of the perception and foresight quirks that I've encountered. If you want to help others, then you can become part of the police force. They're often teased because they get villains delivered to their doorstep, but it's also a fine occupation. We, heroes, cannot function properly without police cooperation. The police investigate, the heroes act and we keep the public safe. It's not bad to dream, but you also have to consider what is realistic little miss."

As All Might closed the door to the rooftop, Izumi felt her heart crack just a bit more. She understood all his points; it's not like she hasn't been told the exact same thing by people most of her life. Her mother, her friend, her peers and sometimes even her instructors has told her the same words, repeatedly. It really proves that quote, "Don't meet your heroes."

Distantly, she can hear the sound of an explosion, but she was too deep in her thoughts to mind it.

But she's come too far, already. 10 years ago, she talked to her father learn to be a lady. So that she could be just like Kyoko-sama respected even if she was quirkless. Tonight, she was the star of a private function. Where her instructors would validate her training and the city officials learn that she deserves respect for her skills and not her quirklessness.

But it wasn't just Geisha training she'd been doing for the last ten years. Two years after she started training to be a lady; she trained to be a fighter too. At the age of 6, Kacchan had started to become more aggressive as more and more people praised his flashy quirk to be hero-worthy. It also didn't help that, at that time, there were groups being formed to be anti-quirkless. It had been slowly been gaining momentum; starting from the western countries, its ideologies were reaching Japan at an alarming rate. While a lot of the adult population of the world was still quirkless; each generation born had more and more chances of having a quirk. The quirkless were quickly becoming the minority.

The government of Japan while previously had been predominantly quirkless individuals in various levels in each ministry; has been slowly filled with quirked officials. By the time that Izumi was six and a half; much like the rest of the world only 20% of government officials were quirkless. Far-Left politicians, where suppression of quirkless individuals was their goal, dominated the ministry. They were campaigning to segregate the quirkless from quirked individuals, "so that they can be safe." But the truth was, they were treating being quirkless as a disease instead of just being left behind the evolutionary cycle. The chances of a quirkless individual to give birth to a quirked child were 50/50 at best.

People were starting to believe that being quirkless was a genetic defect that could be hereditary. And this scared a lot of people. 200 years ago, the world was the polar opposite. A time when quirked individuals only numbered 5% of the total population of the world was but history now. These politicians had convinced majority of the people that for the sake of the quirkless' own good that they be not exposed to the dangers of people with quirks. But everyone knew that was just an excuse to make sure that quirkless people won't interfere with the quirked, since now they're the ones considered as normal.

Everything was about to snowball into hell before suddenly, huge corporations like Vongola Corp., Millefiore Industries., Cavallone Inc. and Shimon Corp started advocating equality rights for both quirked and quirkless. All of them were international companies controlling half the market of the world's fashion, tech, weapons and food sectors. If they don't support or boycott those who support those who advocate the suppression of quirkless individuals there would have been an economical backlash that the world had not seen for over a century. The last time this much political unrest was when quirked individuals were few but had a leader of such power that he was comparable to Hitler.

These corporations pulled all their resources to keep all individuals safe; Izumi was too young to remember but things quieted by the time she was a 2nd grader. It was those dark months that Izumi watched her idol, Kyoko-sama become a more visible activist towards equal rights. And it wasn't only her, other powerful and famous quirkless individuals rose up to the challenge and proved to the world that they weren't less than their peers just because they didn't have a supernatural power.

"It's called supernatural or paranormal because it WASN'T normal or natural! But we see these powers as a part of human nature now, isn't that right? Centuries ago, a man who thought that every other race but those who were Aryan; the perfect examples of blue-eyed, fair-skinned and light-haired people were the dregs of humanity. And then, after a century or two he was proven WRONG, because humans still evolved! That's right! Quirked individuals are the evolution of humanity but sometimes evolution needs time to catch up. It took us thousands of years to shed the vestiges of our primate cousins. It took us thousands of years to stand upright. It took us thousands of years to start civilization as we know it. And they, the quirkless just needs time to contribute to evolution and more than likely in half a century no child will be born quirkless. We progress towards higher evolution but we cannot forget our kin who needed time to catch-up. They learned to accept us, quirked individuals. We need to learn to accept them."

It was a powerful speech given by a powerful man leading a powerful nation; a man whose ancestors suffered under the hands of others due to the colour of their skin. Of course, it didn't wipe out the widespread bias of quirked vs. quirkless but it taught people that it's not the quirkless' fault they were born like that. By the time all the heat of that mess ended, Izumi had been learning self-defence for a year.

It had scared Hisashi that his daughter would most likely burn because of the rest of the world so he had her start on learning to fight. Because Izumi was so good at dancing in her Geisha classes; the fight trainers of the secret spy school she didn't know she was half attending recommended for her to learn Capoeira. The moves and techniques of capoeira were far faster than the delicate and graceful movements of traditional dances but they saw that Izumi loved it.

Alongside capoeira, they thought they should teach the young girl to know how to do armed combat. But they didn't want to arm her with true weapons like knives or such and the bo, was too heavy and cumbersome to incorporate into capoeira. It took a while but they found that Arnis was a good fit. While Arnis can use knives and other sharp objects it mostly uses short blunt objects to deflect, as it was a defensive martial art. Since one of Izumi's strengths in her Geisha training was using fans with dancing they thought a tessen would work fine with her.

This combination made her all the more protected…

And deadly.

Hisashi had commissioned friends of his who had quirks related to metallurgy and mineralogy to make a decorated but sturdy tessen for his daughter. What came out of it was obsidian like metal fan with dark red rubies, dark green emeralds dotting the inside of the fan itself and two white diamonds on the outside. It was made in a way that it folds like a regular fan as if nothing was in-between at all. Through the years they added sharp metal tips made of an unknown but strong metal that can be retracted on the end of each rib. Izumi always carried it with her, hidden on a compartment on her thigh, hidden from view unless someone pulls her skirt up. She also has other tessen but they were less decorative but all had the sharp retractable tips; though these were made from regular steel.

Finally, when Izumi started to develop muscles and started into puberty she chose to add to her repertoire of skills. She had grace, she had speed, and she had dexterity. That left behind pure strength or power. While looking into aikido, judo or jeet kune do; she found krav maga. Its nature was self-defence but the power and technique behind it were from offense oriented martial arts. So while she couldn't have the brute strength for offensive type martial arts the techniques of Krav Maga made up for it. Blows that felt more powerful than it looked.

All these thoughts, her memories, swirled in her mind as she walked. _'And so, All Might add to the people who have said the same exact things to me. I... Don't cry, Izumi. You've always known, right?_ ' Izumi said to herself as she wiped the tears threatening to fall. _'This reality, you've know it. That's why you've been trying so desperately. In a way, you've averted your eyes and not looked at reality. In the same way you've known that you can change your fate. I can't give up._ ' She kept wiping at her tears as she puts away her notebook, which she had been browsing. _'I gave myself a chance when I started training. Even if I have to go through the hard way, I can be a hero after all, I have my path of grace._ ' She smiled sadly as she looked up.

Finally, the sounds of explosions ring in her ear. ' _Oh dear, did I unconsciously go here?_ ' Izumi saw All Might's skeletal form to the side but she focused on the scene in front of the crowd. She felt horror as she watched multiple heroes holding back and shouting out, "Bear with it! Another hero who can handle this is coming!" It broke her own heart and was sympathizing ' _This is… the same villain that tried to attack me… Oh no._ ' Izumi had to cover her mouth in worry and guilt as some tears build up in her eyes once more. She felt partly responsible for this happening. It was an accident that All Might had pulled her up with him but she also should have been mindful of the plastic bottle she knew All Might put in his pocket.

There was fire throughout the whole alley and the heroes were just trying to evacuate as much as many possible civilians because they couldn't combat the quirk. The hostage was still struggling beneath the slime of the villain when suddenly she saw whose face it was when he got his face free. Horrified, she watched her friend desperately trying to take a huge breath but his mouth was covered by that foul slime. His eyes… his eyes….

Without warning or even conscious effort, Izumi ran forward already calculating what to do to at least try to help. Unconsciously, she ould hear Death Arms shout for her to stop, calling her an idiot but… ' _Why… Why did I run out?_ ' She could see the villain readying his arm to attack, probably in concert with Kacchan's quirk. ' _What to do…? What can I do?_ ' Her mind flashed to her notes. Notes she had written and memorized. ' _Page 25!'_ Kamui Wood's attack, make the opponent flinch back then capture.

So she pulled out two of her reserve tessen, not the one on her leg, and then flung her bag to hit Slimy directly on the eyes. In those precious few seconds, Kacchan had the chance to take the breath of life. Opening her fans, she started digging and flinging away the slime that covered her best friend. "Hold on, Kacchan!"

Bakugou having regained a semblance of consciousness back started berating her while she tried to dig him out. "Why are _you_ here, Baka-Onna?!" Slowly, Izumi was able to actually dig into and remove the slime encasing in big scoops of her tessen. "My legs moved by their own! I still don't know why, though!" In those moments, fleeting as it was, her thoughts turned to her memories once more. That there were various reasons why shouldn't even try or that she was as useless as people once thought her to be. But above all else, she can hear herself cry out her friend's name, "Kacchan!" With a wobbly but wide smile, I answer the question Bakugou had asked earlier, "You looked like you were asking for help."

In that moment, for whatever reason it felt like the winds of change was blowing through. Izumi broke through most of the upper casing of slime over her friend, closing her tessen; using the upper body strength she had been training for years, she used her arms to hug Kacchan and start trying to pull him out. In her struggles, she didn't notice that the slime villain got his act together and raised its arm to hit them. The other heroes charging to try and save her vaguely registered in her peripherals and it scrambled her instincts to pull Kacchan away even more.

Another explosion sounds around them and Izumi felt someone pull her back and let herself fall to the ground, holding Kacchan to herself still. She saw her hero, All Might standing over them facing the villain. "I really am pathetic." The hero mumbled to himself. Izumi wasn't sure if she was meant to hear him. "Even though I've admonished you, I wasn't putting what I said to practice!" In the seconds that All Might pulled both teens out of the villains way, his Slime caught on to All Might, clinging to him to restart the liquid possession process again. But it was useless.

With a declaration, "Pros are always risking their lives!" Slime tried to attack once more calling out All Might's name but he was too slow. All Might was already powering up a Detroit Smash straight to the villain. In those few seconds, Izumi flipped herself over so that she was covering Kacchan's body with her own. Without any more pre-amble, All Might threw his punch while his other hand kept both Izumi and Kacchan to the ground so that they wouldn't fly off because of the wind pressure the attack generated. A localized twister started in their area and heroes scrambled to keep civilians from flying off as well. Izumi had the foresight to engage the steel tips of her tessen and anchor herself and Bakugou to the ground, just in case.

As the winds died down the sky darkened and it started raining. As Izumi felt the first few drops of rain fall, she could hear heroes and civilians alike talking. Saying that All Might changed the air pressure so much it started raining. Pulling herself up a bit, still mostly covering and lying on top of her best friend she peered down at him. "Yokatta." Izumi's voice was tearful but a tentative and joyous smile lit up her face. She felt Kacchan's arms circle around him, something they'd done as friends who frequently slept on the same bed in sleepover as kids. "You idiot woman…." Kacchan had a smirk on his face, it wasn't the first time Izumi had stuck her neck out for her bestfriend and he's learned his lesson that she wasn't useless. No matter how many mean remarks he makes at her.

They were pulled up and put in shock blankets the heroes were a bit too stunned and speechless that a young civilian without a visible use of quirk was able to do something they'd been trying for half an hour. Though there was one ringing endorsement for both, "You'll be great heroes." For Kacchan, it was for his incredible quirk. For Izumi, it was for her successful rescue. They were both let go soon enough and gathered their things. All the heroes were busy, either being interviewed or working with the police to gather the villain for detainment. So they decided to leave, they were both met by their two schoolmates who were dragged by Bakugou earlier.

"I-Izumi-sama! That was… that was…!" One of the boys couldn't articulate but by his heavy blush and excitement filled eyes, they could guess what he was thinking. The other wasn't so speechless, "Awesome! You were awesome, Izumi-kaichou! Our school idol is so cool! Katsuki, your quirk is so powerful! Look at the street!" He was just gushing over praises over his classmates. Izumi just smiled brightly and nodded her head in acknowledgement. Bakugou just scoffed and took Izumi's had to drag her away. "We need to go. I'll see you idiots back at school next week! Baka-Izu needs to get home, now."

Once more, she's dragged by her best friend as she waved her classmates goodbye, who all waved back. Once more, Izumi's head was full of thoughts and let her friend lead her home. She wanted to apologize to All Might for causing him trouble by accidentally releasing the villain in some way. Maybe she'd send a message on his homepage later? Luckily her thoughts decided to stay in her head and not said out loud. She didn't want to blurt out any secrets she promised to keep to her friend. As they neared their homes, Kacchan slowed down and faced her. Kacchan crowded her and held her chin. "Baka-Izu." Izumi had to look up a bit to stare into his eyes, her blush slowly growing redder on her face. "Kacchan?"

Bakugou pursed his lips and slid his hands towards Izumi's shoulders, squeezing the flesh there just a tad painfully, "I never asked for your help! And you didn't help me, got it?! I was fine; the heroes were just a bit slow but you're quirkless! De… Deku, you're smart and you're also talented for being quirkless but you're playing a game without a full deck! I wasn't able to answer earlier because the damn teach came in but I agree with our dumbass classmates! You've got more raw talent than anybody in our whole school even without a quirk! Don't look down on us that just because you are good with so many things that we can't compare! Are you trying to make me owe you?! Don't look down on me! I'll be the greatest hero and you… you'll be that talented idol everyone knows you are!"

Deku, a name that he had once given to me, because he found another way to read mine; this is the first time he's used it since forever. Pushing himself away from Izumi he did an about face and shouted, "Baka-onna! Go home and take a shower already! You can't miss your mizuage!" before he practically ran away from Izumi. The girl was stunned but had to giggle to herself, ' _Toughness, huh?_ _He's right though. It's not like I truly accomplished anything, or changed anything. But, I'm still glad. All that happened today just means that the path I've chosen wasn't for nothing._ '

Just as Izumi started her way home suddenly All Might shouted his key phrase and appeared in front of her, "I am here!" This made Izumi jump and actually take out her tessen hidden up her leg. It was unfolded and reflected the slowly setting sun; she was down in her capoeira ready stance with the fan acting as an extension to her. Though, she immediately stopped her movement when she noticed her hero. "All Might?! Why are you here? You were surrounded by reporters earlier. Also, that was dangerous! I thought you were some kind of bikkuri-rapist! I could've hurt you with my tessen!" Dropping out of stance and closing her tessen to stash away on her upper leg, she stared at her hero.

"Bi-bikkuri… rapist?" All Might repeated slightly stunned. Shaking off another surprising quip from the girl and started posturing, "It was easy because I was All Mi…" Then, while All Might flexed his muscles, his skeletal form showed up in a spray of blood. Which drew a surprised, "Eep!" from Izumi. Cleaning off the remaining blood, once more All Might looked serious in talking to her. "Little Miss. I come with thanks, a correction, and a suggestion. If you hadn't been there, if you hadn't told me about your life…. I would've turned into a guy in a body suit who was all talk. So, I thank you."

Izumi shook her head, "No, that can't be… it was partially my fault that the villain got dislodged from your pants… That sounds so bad cause he was slime…." Izumi made a disgusted sound on the back of her throat and even All Might looked a bit sick… well, sicker. "Also, I said all those impertinent things to you even though I'm quirkless." Izumi felt ashamed because of her rather rude manners to her hero. "That's right… It was because it was none other than this sarcastic, Quirkless **you** at the scene that I was able to act." This made Izumi look at her hero more closely. "Top heroes have stories about them from their school days. Most of their stories have one thing in common: Their bodies moved before they had a chance to think." At that moment, she felt tears build up once more in her eyes. Looking down, she felt her hands grip the handle of her school bag.

' _ **For some reason, I remembered my mother's words.**_ '

" **I'm sorry, Izumi! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"**

Izumi felt her knees give out from underneath her. Letting go of her bag, she covered her hands over her mouth as she felt her tears gather and fall. All Might's next words… "That was true for you, too, wasn't it?" With her hands covering her mouth she sobbed out, "Yes." As she felt more of her tears fall. Izumi bent her head as she tried to cover her sobbing still.

' _ **That's not it, mom. Back then, what I wanted you to say… The words I wanted to hear were…'**_

The words I longed to hear from those important to me… from my hero, "You can become a hero." And Izumi's tears wouldn't stop as she let one hand cover her mouth while the other clutched at her chest, as if her chest would burst in happiness. These tears were tears of joy and pain. Joy as finally, someone validated her dream. Pain, because all these years she was told the exact opposite.

' _ **Dreams can become reality. By the way, I forgot to mention that this is the story how I became the greatest hero.'**_


	3. Roaring Muscles

The Path of Grace

Summary: A Young Izumi's heart is broken when she finds out she's quirkless. But after stumbling on a TV interview of a quirkless but successful actress, she thinks she found her path to greatness.

Warning: Fem!Izuku

Note: I DEEPLY apologize for the long delay on my updates. I'm actually a very sporadic and unreliable in updating things. But I'll try to keep a schedule. Try being the operative word.

* * *

 **The number one hero, All Might.**

 **Age unknown, Quirk unidentified.**

 **He dashed onto the scene of the hero world and received unwavering popularity based on his ability. Ever since he appeared, the once critically high rate of crimes committed by villains decreased year after year, and his existence itself became a deterrent. He became the Symbol of Peace in both name and reality. And that man said to me...**

You can become a hero.

 _ **'Huh? Midoriya-chan? She can't!'**_

 _ **'You're Quirkless!'**_

 _ **'We can't stand in the same ring! You're going to be an idol and I'm going to be a hero!'**_

 _ **'I'm sorry, Izumi!'**_

 **I wanted someone to tell me that.**

 **And then, one of the people I most admired said those words to me. Can anything be more shocking than this?**

 **More than this...?**

 **I'm going train you to become a hero!**

It baffled Izumi greatly, that her hero idol would offer to train her. Well it's not like All Might could offer his quirk, silly notion that. After exchanging contact info, they agreed to schedule her training. But for now, she needed to get home to get ready for her final exam. As she arrived home; her mother was waiting and pacing in their living room. When Inko heard the door open, Izumi's mother ran to her daughter and hugged her tight. "Izumiiiiiiiii!" her mother wailed. Izumi just smiled and held her mother close. "I was so worried! Mitsuki and I saw the news! You were both so brave! But Izumiiiiiiiii you can't do something so dangerous! My heart can't handle it!"

Inko was a strong woman, having taken care of her daughter alone for 15 years. She had her day job as a corporate lawyer to some big corporations in Japan. Her husband's monthly support check went straight to her daughter's education and trust fund. Her daughter wanted for nothing. Except the one thing her daughter wanted the most; to be a hero. While her husband called every day to guide her so that she could support Izumi's growth as a performer and fighter; it worried Inko to no end. Inko understood that sometimes she smothers their daughter with how restrictive she could be. How she threatened to leave Hisashi because he encouraged Izumi to learn martial arts would be one of the worst periods in their lives. But even if they were far apart, Hisashi and Inko loved each other to no end and the heart only grows fonder.

So when her daughter was the one who was comforting her after watching the news where Izumi and Katsuki was shown in an altercation with a villain; Inko decided that she would endure just a bit more for Izumi. If her daughter could find a way to become a hero even without a quirk, she will support her to the bitter end. At least, she hopes her heart can it until that end.

Izumi had her widest smile reserved for her loved ones; enthusiastic but not faked. "I'm fine, mom! All Might saved Kacchan and I. He was so awesome!" Izumi thinks that she would keep the extra training her hero idol proposed to her. Izumi always knew that her martial arts training not only strained her parent's relationship but with her too. Inko still never used her quirk in the house, and while she didn't protest it quite so loudly anymore Izumi knew that her mother was never happy whenever she got home bruised because of training. Izumi had entered some local competitions for mixed martial arts and even if she won the girl's division; she'd never seen her mother so disapproving that she never entered another.

She knew that her mother would never approve; no matter Inko's words of encouragement.

Instead, she focused on more lady-like competitions, dancing, music and some art competitions. She was making headlines with multiple national championships in playing the koto. Lately, she's been dabbling in the harder Chinese Guzheng; she was making some headway. She'd been invited to some concerts to perform both instruments, as well as invitations for formal education under a Chinese Music school. It had overwhelmed her that she was getting such attention for what amounted to a side hobby while learning Geisha arts.

Of course, she can't accept. After all, she had set her heart to study in U.A. no matter what.

It didn't take long after Izumi took a quick shower to rinse the slime off her body and a light dinner before she left for that night's party. Since her patron—guests were mostly government officials and other reputable men of power, the dinner party was pushed as late as possible on a weekday night. It was half-past eight in the evening before all of her guests to her mizuage had arrived. By then, Izumi was already wearing a rather subtly decorated kimono. Dark emerald silk clothed her while bright splashes of peach pink peonies and sakura blossoms dance along its embroideries. Her hair longer than usual with the help of a hair stylist whose quirk could lengthen anybody's hair; done up in traditional fashion. Though she still wore elaborate hair ornaments with flowers being the theme; her dress-up was a subdued compared to her earlier get ups in similar events. She was much younger than most of the maiko graduates but she had been training longer than most.

Tonight after she finishes all her performances, the head of the Okiya who subsequently is also the principal of the performing arts school attached to the Okiya will cut off the top knot on her done up hair. It would signify she was a Geisha and would start wearing more subdued kimonos, hair ornaments and zori instead of the more colourful get up of a maiko.

And those Okobo sandals, finally she didn't have to wear them anymore. Being graceful wasn't second nature to her, much to everyone else's disbelief but years of being forced to wear Okobo sandals as an apprentice Maiko forced her to be. She could only bear planting her face on the ground one too many times.

Of course, there were other performances she had to perform because Izumi didn't only attend the civilian side of the school but also the secret school attached to it. While playing music or dancing or even serving drinks she had to demonstrate her skill as a would-be assassin or in her case, a hopeful future semi-underground hero.

She had plans for her future hero career.

Her first duty tonight is to play the shamisen while waiting for everyone to get comfortable and start on their evening party. Senior geisha were entertaining the arriving men with simple games or small talk. Among the men from various government ministries, there were some she recognized. Tsuragamae Kenji, the National Chief of Police, Atobe Mikage, President and CEO of Atobe industries and representing the Association of Businessmen of Greater Tokyo, Juumonji Erito, current minister of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, and Karasuma Tadaomi was representing Japan's Ministry of Defense and finally, the current Pirncial of U.A., Nedzu.

These were some of the men that sat in the "public" room. Behind closed screen doors however were other powerful men and women. Yakuza lawyer, Sawada Shin who was not related to Sawada Kyoko's husband but has worked together on occasion, the underground hero, Eraserhead, the underground disciplinary foundation vice-head, Kusakabe Tetsuya and finally, international hitwoman Irina Jelavich. Izumi was taking on a monumental task, to be a public figure yet part of the shadows.

It's all a part of the plan.

As the guests started their meals, Izumi moved towards the koto set in front of the audience. Closing her eyes, she started her prepared piece. There were two parts of each of her presentations, one was the obvious the second was subtle. In realistic setups off a performer being an assassin, the room is usually set up beforehand to give the highest advantage against their target or targets.

As she plays certain melodies it activates the tiny audio transmitters hidden in the ikebana on the low tables on both the public and hidden rooms. One of Izumi's hair pieces acted as a receiver to various transmitters hidden in the room both the public one and the hidden ones. It connected to the back of her ears so that it wasn't obvious she was wearing it; and because of her hair it was also well hidden. Each signal pointed to the general direction of a transmitter it signalled to her which were her targets and how many were in a hidden room. The tones which signalled her had subtle differences and are well hidden under the strums of her playing the koto.

After finishing her piece on the koto, her patron guests gave enthusiastic but polite applause. Her patron guests were also part of tonight's evaluators. None of them knows who her marked targets are for tonight but they knew she had done remarkably on the first portion of tonight's exam. Identification and Marking of her targets.

The next part of her performance was her favourite. With the help of senior Geisha in the room whom started to play their instruments, Izumi took out her second more elaborate fan. This one was part of a set of three; all had the unique mechanism to shoot almost microscopic needle projectiles at distances of 40 ft. The needles themselves were customisable. She always had at least three sets of the needle cartridges on her at any time. She had mild to strong paralytics, sleeping gas and truth serum, all dispersible through air.

Right now the needles she had were coloured dyes that can only be activated through a special chemical to activate the colours. The needles were small enough that if it pierced through the paper doors, it would be as if a very small bug just tore through it. As Izumi danced her receivers kept transmitting to her, much like echolocation, the exact positions of her targets.

Finally at the crescendo of her dance and almost at the end, she fired the needles through the shoji doors. No reaction from the closed screens; Izumi breathed a sigh of relief as she regained energy from the rather invigorating dance. She was asked to sit near one of the patrons to talk while she recovered. Izumi made sure to make small talk and finish the last part of her demonstration. There were still a few targets marked in the public room and she had to do this part while in full view.

But just like how she was taught, flawlessly she was able to drug the food of her targets in-between distractions offered by her or her senior geisha. Subtle cues and messages kept going back and forth the girls and though there were plenty of men that understood their cues; they chose not to comment on it. After all, the geisha's cues were only known to their patrons, their agents and trainers. Their victims didn't stay free or live long enough to tell anyone else what their cues were.

It wasn't long before Izumi had to quickly swerve her head as a paint pellet grazed the right side of her head, hitting the table. While some guests ducked for cover, there were some that started attacking her or just stayed still; this was the last part of the exam. It wasn't always that they were tested in combat but she was trained specifically to be a fighter and they had to test her.

With a swift pull on the side of her kimono, it dropped the heavier cloth underneath and it came up to her knees allowing more mobility to her legs; her primary attack style. Her opponents either had short blunted knives with paint or paint pellet guns. With her fans in hand, Izumi twisted her body around to be able to kick and disarm her opponent. It was a whirl of fabric and shouts of pain. When the commotion died down, Izumi stood immaculate while her opponents were covered in paint around their kill points.

A hearty applause sounded through the public and hidden rooms. "Congratulations, Midoriya-chan. You've passed with flying colours." As the chemical gas to activate her "poisons" was released her targets were in a multitude of colours. Some of them looked very surprised that Izumi was able to get the hit on them. That prompted her guest-patrons to applaud louder in congratulations. With a quick flick of the headmistress' wrist, a small blade flew through the air and cut off the knot that signified that Izumi was a Maiko. She was a certified Geisha undercover hitman.

Once she becomes a hero, she will be considered part of the world of Underground Heroes, like Eraserhead; whom was looking at Izumi with a curious gaze and a wide creepy grin.

The underground hero was anticipating Izumi's official entrance to the underbelly of the world in the side of good.

Sunday after her Mizuage

She turned up at Dagobah Beach as was scheduled by her and All Might. She saw his skeletal form standing there and looking at the rubbish covered beach. "Ah, there you are Miss Midoriya!" Skele-All Might grinned and waved at her. Izumi felt her insides freeze up at the sight of it. "Ah… Ano sa… Skeleton-sama… I mean All Might-san. Can you? Uhm… Not grin like that? Y-you're facing away from the sun and the shadows are even more pronounced on your face… And it looked like as if a less buff Skeletor was facing me." Izumi had to look to the side to; firstly, not look at the scary sight All Might was giving and secondly, she was embarrassed for him.

She heard the tell-tale wet coughing from All Might following the sound of a spew-laugh. Izumi hid her grin as she watched from the corner of her eyes as Skele-All Might wiped the blood of his chin. "Young Lady, you're going to give me a heart attack with those kinds of words."

"I'm really sorry, All Might. It's just how I think things and well, my best friend has been despairing how I don't have a brain-to-mouth filter for all the years we've known each other. Because honestly, it's hard not to comment on the fact that I do feel like I'm talking to an unmanaged, used and deflated blow-up doll version of your muscle form." Why does she keep running her mouth, Izumi thought to herself as another laugh came out of All Might and he had to clean-up his chin of blood, again.

"Pl-please, Ojou-chan, yamete kure yo!" All Might kept his laughing to chuckles, he feels like Izumi and his old sidekick, Nighteye would get along fabulously. It was hard enough to work with Nighteye when he was healthy and all the jokes that seem to come out of the seemingly mild-mannered man but now he's taking on a student who was probably worse than the ex—sidekick.

"Alright, let's just focus on your training, little missy! While I cannot magically grant you a quirk, I noticed that your reflexes, intuition and overall intellect were quite the sight to see a few days ago. Quick thinking, acting and good deliberation on proper actions in the face of danger and saving that boy at the same time was extraordinary. I've only encountered such actions by one other hero, Nedzu, the principal of U.A." All Might wasn't able to finish as suddenly Izumi burst into chatter.

"Principal Nezu?! His quirk is Hi-Spec, one of the very few intelligence quirks in the hero industry! Intelligence quirks like his are as rare as healing quirks like Recovery Girl's are! Even more so since he's one of the very few animals with quirks too! I mean, quirked animals are being discovered more and more but it's rare that they can integrate into human society so well! Most of them retain their animal brain but since Principal Nezu has an intelligence quirk he's even surpassed human knowledge supposedly! They say that his mind works like a super-computer too! Oh man, what if an intelligence quirk that surpasses that also develops? Like a brain that can fire off like a quantum computer! But I wouldn't want that on anyone cause that can be traumatic…." Swirls were starting to spin in Skele-All Might's eyes before he suddenly put his hands on Izumi's shoulders.

"While your words aren't nonsense, I'm tempted to call you Princess of nonsense because of how off-tangent you were getting. How about Princess of Mumbling? I think that's a better fit." Izumi just blushed brightly at her hero idol's words. Izumi usually had a handle on her public persona and her mumblings were usually kept to her home or with Kacchan but she can't seem to shut up with All Might. She felt safe with the hero and it just causes her to word vomit.

Izumi looked to the side with a sheepish smile, her face bright with a light blush of embarrassment. "I'll take that as a compliment, All Might-san, if you don't mind." All Might stepped out of the shadow so that he's facing Izumi parallel to the sun, "Kinishinai, kinishinai. I was hoping you'd see it as a compliment." All Might chuckled lowly in his throat. Though, he stopped laughing because now Izumi looked at him in vague horror once more.

"Oh Kami-sama, now you look like you're a depressed MADAO!" Seriously, Izumi wasn't trying to insult her hero idol but her thoughts were running away from her. All Might had to spit-spew out some blood to the side before suddenly buffing up into his hero form. "I am not a totally helpless guy, missy! I'm All Might!" Unfortunately, Izumi was just shaking her head in pity as if saying, "Only on this form, yes. But when you're the debuffed Skeletor, I think even zombies wouldn't think twice about ignoring you or assuming you were one of them already."

And once again, unfortunately, she was saying this out loud. This time, All Might was forced to deflate rapidly and spew his blood into the air above him; his hand raised to his sides as if in an expression, "Why, oh, why is this happening to me."

"Little Miss, whatever I've done to you, please forgive me. I can't keep laughing like this!" And sure enough mirth danced in those glowing blue sunken eyes as well as a wide grin being cleaned up of blood. Izumi yet again looked sheepish and tried to reinforce her school president mask to give All Might some reprieve. "I'll try All Might-san."

"Good! Now, I want to assess your current physical ability. Again, I'm just training you so that we can maximize your current strengths that I can help you with, reflexes and intuition. Unfortunately because of evolution, you'll never be as strong as a boy with the same musculature without a strength enhancement quirk. But there are ways to use what you have against an overwhelming difference of brute strength. I've looked you up and I know you've won several mix martial arts competitions the past few years and that you've entered some underground fighting rings as well." All Might's voice was knowing yet he was not accusatory. Underground fighting rings gained popularity after quirks first appeared. It had become a popular way for people to use their quirks to its full power without being a hero, vigilante or villain. Of course, majority of the fighters in these rings were heroes, vigilantes and villains.

But everyone followed a strict code of honour in the underbelly of society pertaining to the fighting rings. What happens in the fight clubs; stays in the fight club. After quitting the legal fight competitions she and Kacchan entered the junior divisions of the fighting rings. She and her bestfriend had been the best fighters in Kyoto for their age class; consistently in the Top 5. Izumi was sure that she'd seen Eraserhead quite a few times in their matches plus her handlers from the school were the ones that registered her in the first place. It just so happened that Kacchan could enter because of her endorsement. This was the biggest reason why Kacchan didn't see her as worthless but somehow it got into her bestfriend's head that just because she was a badass in a fighting ring doesn't mean she was hero material.

It irritated her to no end.

Izumi just smiled at All Might, while her newest mentor could talk about it since he didn't participate in it, she can't. Which All Might understood, afterall, he's been friends with Eraserhead for years. "So I'd like to know what kind of fight training you've had. While I do see that you're using moves for Krav Maga, I don't think I've ever seen it flow so well as if in a dance."

Izumi grinned wildly, "I've been studying dance in traditional and contemporary for years now at the same time I was also training in capoeira. It was actually the first style I learned before Krav Maga. As you said, I can't compensate a natural biological difference of male and female in brute strength but I've improvised and combined Krav Maga and Capoeira to not only overcome that difference but to also be unpredictable and harder to stop. I've built up great flexibly through the years, though as you've seen a few days ago, I also use weapons." At this she pulled out one of her less ornate battle fans. Activating and deactivating the sharpened tips as well as using some sleight of hand to change the number of fans she's holding or changing it entirely to a different fan she had hidden.

"I don't have a quirk, so I thought a weapon could compensate for it as well. I mean even heroes like Eraserhead, Nedzu, and, Snipe need to use weapons because their quirks are not truly suited for offense without said weapons or tools. While the tips of the blades on my tessen can be deadly, like all sharp objects this is all perfectly legal." She has never once used the blades on her tessen, simply because of how deadly it could be. Not to mention some of her other tessen already had surgical sharp fans without the bladed tips. All Might was a truly trusted hero who is involved in all levels of society, he was actually scheduled to attend her Mizuage but because of the earlier scuffle that day, he wasn't able to attend. And a maiko's true name is never mentioned only the prepared Geisha names. Izumi tilted her head to the side and moved her hair a bit so that All Might could see a small almost indistinct red tattoo behind her ear of a red sparrow.

At All Might's surprised hum, Izumi turned to him to smile; and All Might returned that smile with a shallow bow with his right hand showing the cue for, "Thank you for your trust." in the secret cues of her patron-guests.

"Well then, since you've had such extensive training, I trust your former trainers to have made sure you're battle ready. All we need to do now is overall strength training. It doesn't hurt for a girl to gain some good muscle mass. We're not trying to make you buff, that would negate all your previous training; but we will be boosting your overall physical strength, stamina and endurance. By cleaning this beach in the next 10 months before your entrance test to UA." With that All Might gestured grandly towards the trash covered beach.

"Years ago, this beach was the perfect spot for summers in the city, walks on the beach or just a picnic in general. But slowly the tide started leaving trash on the beach until people started to illegally dump their garbage as well. So, as a hero-otaku, I'm sure you understand that being a hero is not only about beating the next great villain but also community service like this. So we're going to clear this one section of the beach so that those who stand on top of these stairs could at least see the sea and the horizon." Izumi grinned wildly at her agreement with All Might. Even before All Might decided to use this place as part of her training she was planning to propose to Orudera High's principal if she could start a community service activity for the school to clean up the beach. Basically instead of going to detention for bad behaviour or even suspension, they'll help clean up the beach.

She was still planning to do it but she'll talk to All Might about it if it would be okay. So starting that day, she began the gruelling task of cleaning the beach all the while All Might being a sometimes pest. Like sitting on the stuff she was pulling. Sometimes she appreciated his cheering but at times it was just plain embarrassing. Which always resulted in her making comments about him whether if he's in his buff or skeletal form; it always ended up with All Might either exaggerated, equally embarrassed as his student or laughing to the point of blood dripping down his almost uncontrollably.

On a side note, her celebratory party for her successful mizuage was great fun. Her friends from the performing arts school, some acquaintances from Orudera and, of course, Kacchan partied with her a week after she first started training with All Might. One of her friends, Yaoyorozu Momo, a rich girl Izumi had been training with in the Performing Arts school was kind enough to lend her family's beautiful garden and gazebo for the event. Dressed in their cutest kimonos, she and her training mates performed for their guests, having great fun at being awed at. Afterall, Geisha or Maiko don't usually perform in public and the guests enjoyed a rare sight. Free of charge too.

She and Yaoyorozu had been communicating for a while now as they were both very similar in, at least, their public or school persona. Izumi wasn't comfortable enough with her to let her inner nerd out. Izumi found out that Yaoyorozu was going to be one of the four recommended students for the Heroics Division in UA. Izumi told Yaoyorozu that they would be going to the same school though that even if Izumi wanted to join the hero division, she could end up in General Educaiton instead. It wasn't a secret that she was quirkless or that she was a mix-martial arts expert; she just didn't want her friend to patronize her.

"Midoriya-san! Don't say that! You, as a hero-otaku, should know that there are many heroes who have non-combatant quirks working the field. Plus, even if you end up in the General Education Department, I'm sure that you'll be able to transfer to Heroics if you show your potential in the Sports Festival! Everybody knows that GenEd Students can transfer after showing that they have what it takes to be heroes. Plus, I've heard that the headmistress will be recommending you for a full-ride scholarship to any highschool and college of your choice! I know they've previously sent students to UA on the same offer. You'd be luckier than even me because even I have to pay my tuition as a recommended student." Even if Yaoyorozu was a rich, she understood the struggles of those who weren't as fortunate as her. In the way that the rich always see the less fortunate, that is. Slightly condescending in an unconscious way.

"Thank you, Yaoyorozu-chan. I hope we'd still be friends if we both go to UA and go to different departments."

"Of course!"

Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months.

It was late fall when Izumi was running with a heavy microwave on her shoulder and All Might in front of her on a Segway. Unfortunately, even with coordinating with All Might for her schedule and meal plans, Izumi had always been a go-getter type of gal. She took the initiative to modify All Might's plan which already included her normal training of her martial-arts, her school responsibilities and rest days. And no matter how smart Izumi was, she was also dumb about her own limitations. So she had pushed herself more than All Might was willing and that resulted in over-fatigue and collapsed on their weighted jog.

All Might scolded her for a bit before she replied as she was trying to get up, "I do… I so desperately want to get in…. But I'm so limited, I have to work harder than everyone or else I won't be able to catch up. I want to become like you, I want to become the greatest hero, just like you!"

This in turn seemed to fire up her mentor as she was picked up by the scruff of her shirt in his buff form. "You go-getter fangirl! I like that! But if that's the case, then you can't rush things now. But I understand your feelings. Leave it to this old man to adjust your plan!" All Might loudly declared while still holding her like a limp kitten and laughing loudly. "You're not old, All Might. But you look like a corpse who still has live flesh instead of dried leather." The cut off laugh and subsequent choke of a more genuine laugh was her revenge on the muscle-head who was her mentor.

 _ **February 26**_

 _ **The day of the UA Entrance exam**_

Izumi was only wearing her sports bra and her sport shorts as she stood on top of the pile of trash she finally finished stacking up. She felt like shouting in victory, like a typical posturing testosterone filled boy in a cliché action movie after a training montage, but no. She's better than that and she will become the epitome of a strong _woman_ , to be an inspiration to other young girls; at the same time she'd be the ultimate Yamato Nadeshiko, a classical and noble lady. She will be the epitome of what a woman should be, what little girls should aspire to be; strong, independent, unwavering but also soft, malleable and graceful.

She'll become every little girl's hero just like how All Might was every little boy's.

She'll become the woman all men coveted and the goal girls strive to be.

Vaguely, she heard her mentor exclaiming, "Oh my… Oh, my **Goodness!** '

She felt her energy drain from her suddenly and pitched forward to fall towards the sand dunes below but ever the hero, All Might caught her. As Izumi blearily looked up to her hero who caught her; she heard him say, "Good work."

Vaguely, she could hear herself saying, "I did it… All Might. I did it!" Slowly the feeling of utter fatigue was leaving her body. "Yeah, you surprised me, you cheeky entertainer!" All Might exclaimed as he gently put Izumi down to stand on her own. "Teenagers are amazing! Here, take a look." Izumi looked up and saw All Might showing her a picture of herself. In her honest opinion, she looked pathetic in it. "That's… horrible All Might. Never publish that, I look like a total wimp. I'll never succeed in the entertainment business if that thing gets out." Izumi was thinking of her career as a geisha. Even with the last 10 months being filled with gruelling training in form of unacknowledged community service, she was still active in her night time career. Even if she was only contracted to play instruments only and not much else since she was still under aged. "No need to fret, oujou-chan. I'd never compromise your work like that. Now, this is you from 10 months ago. You did great. You really did! There's now some serious muscle on you!"

This statement completely woke Izumi up from her tired state, she looked down at her body and saw defined muscles and screamed, as if offended. "I look like a beefed-up female body builder!" She was horrified, how had her clients not seen how obscene her body has become!

Her horrified expression had All Might chucking and a sweat drop form at the back of his head. "You're nowhere near a female body builder. I suspect look more like an extremely athletic lady focusing too much on your core muscles. But that doesn't matter! You've built yourself to the point that you're probably stronger than most female heroines and some heroes! Unfortunately, this is as far as I can help you with. What I would do so that you'd get an offensive type quirk to help you along your way to be a hero but alas, there's no way that I know of."

All Might's words sounded weird to her. Her instincts tell her that her mentor as lying to her. But, why?

"It's ok, All Might. I know my limitations. I'll still try to get into the heroics department." She gave her mentor her best and widest smile and she could feel the nervousness of her mentor. He was hiding something from her. Everyone was entitled to their secrets, it's not like she doesn't know that one cannot receive a quirk so easily. I mean it's not like All Might could just transfer over his quirk to her somehow.

 _ **8:40 The Same Day**_

As Izumi walked towards UA's school ground she looked at her surroundings in wonder. Hundreds of other student hopefuls walked towards the main building with the same kind of nervousness she was feeling. Unfortunately, she had not been able to test out how much stronger she was than before as she finished her training with him in the last minute. Izumi planned to go the performing arts school the next coming weekend and spar with her classmates or even the instructors if there was a difference of her fighting now. She wasn't expecting much change except for maybe more force in her kicks and punches. She probably also needed to attend a few matches in the fighting rings soon too. Though, since she's starting highschool now, she doesn't know if she'll have the same free time as she did in middle school. She was still contemplating her plans to test out herself when she felt two hands suddenly started to tickle her sides. "You're in the way, Deku. You should be punished for being a nuisance."

She felt her laughter bubble from her throat before she had to clamp down on her mouth to stop her giggling to come out. Quickly getting out of Kacchan's grasp she painfully pulled and pinched on her bestfriend's face. "Kacchan is as mean as always. Don't do that to again, it's rude to do that to random people." She lightly scolded her friend. "Oh, so you're random people, huh? Oh, well. Let me treat you like a random person, then." Without warning he walked past her bumping Izzumi enough to unbalance her and started to fall over. She closed her eyes but opened them when she felt like she was still hanging and not falling. Seeing the sky above her, she looked to the side where a girl was smiling widely at her.

"What a rude boy. Is he your friend? Oh! And are you ok? I'm sorry for using my quirk on you without asking first." The girl helped right Izumi back up before clapping her hands together and Izumi felt as if gravity returned to her. Izumi smiled a wild closed smile at the girl. "Nah, you're my hero! You saved me!" Izumi said loudly.

Izumi saw the other girl blush lightly, "Ah… I just… I just thought it would be bad luck I you fell, right?" Izumi just smiled wildly again and bowed her head still. "No, really.. Thank you for saving me from that fall."

"Heki, heki. No need to worry but I'm sure you're nervous about the exam too. So, let's do our best. See ya!" Without further ado the seemingly bubbly girl just skipped away towards the exam hall. This left Izumi speechless. Well… not really. "I feel as if I was in a shounen manga and the main male character just met the first of his love interest for the fans to pick for him. Which is ridiculous, I like boys." With a casual shrug, even Izumi started towards the exam hall, ignoring the other people who were looking at her weirdly because of her small monologue.

Soon the exam hall dimmed and stage lights turned on to focus on the hero emcee-ing in front of them. "For all you examinee listeners tuning in, welcome to my live show today! Everybody say, ' _Hey!'_ "

Silence.

"What a refined response. Then I'll quickly present to you the rundown of the practical exam! Are you ready? Yeah!" Izumi really felt for Present Mic, the students were too focused and nervous to enjoy the show the hero was putting out.

But Izumi felt her usual façade of student council president coming on and she took one of her ordinary fans out and opened it in front of her mouth. She usually did this to cover her mumblings since her fans somehow could muffle her voice whenever she's mumbling. "The voice hero, Present Mic. This is amazing. I listen to him every week on the radio. This is incredible; all the teachers at UA are pro-heroes. Isn't it, Kacchan?" She slides her gaze to her seatmate who was used to her mannerisms. Katsuki only smirked in response.

"As it says on the application requirements, you listeners will be conducting a ten-minute mock urban battle after this! You can bring whatever you want with you. After the presentation, you'll head to the specified battle centres, okay? OKAY?!" Honestly, Present mic is starting to sound a bit desperate in getting a response from the students. She felt Kacchan look at her card to find out what battle centre she was assigned. "In other words, they won't let you work with your friends, huh?"

Letting herself look at her bestfriend's card as well she saw that he was assigned to another battle site. "You're right. Even though our examinee numbers are consecutive, we're assigned to different battle centres." Katsuki just sighed irritated. "I wish you didn't have to take this exam. You're a full ride scholarship already, aren't you? That Performing Arts school is sponsoring you, right? Why couldn't you just have gone to the GenEd and not try for Heroics." Katsuki sounded mad as always if not a tad bit more pissed off than usual. "You were planning to keep me from battling weren't you?" It wasn't so much as a question as a statement since she heard Katsuki scoff and look away. Izumi resisted the urge to soundly close her fan but stayed quiet. She's flattered and just slightly outraged that her bestfriend still saw her as a damsel-in-distress. He knows she can fight for herself.

"The three different types of faux villains are stationed in each battle centre. You earn points for each of them based on the level of their difficulty. Your goals, dear listeners, are to use whatever way you can to earn points by immobilizing the faux villains. Of course, attacking other examinees and any other unheroic actions are prohibited!" Personally, Izumi thought that Present Mic was doing a great job explaining their objectives. She's sure that there is more as she saw the 4th faux villain on her card. But suddenly a loud voice cut through the silence of the students while a tall stocky build stood with his hand raised. "May I ask a question?!"

Personally, she thought that the boy sounded like he demanded that he be allowed to question and not really asking with his tone of voice. But she could also see that Present Mic would probably be one of the teachers she would like; benevolent teachers were her favourites. "Okay!" the hero allowed the question with a wide smile and a pointed finger.

While she could not see what the boy's finger was pointing to exactly, she could take a guess, "On the printout, there are four types of villains. If this is a misprint, then UA, the most prominent school in Japan, should be ashamed of that foolish mistake. We examinees are here in this place because we wish to be moulded into exemplary heroes. In addition, you with the open fan" He suddenly pointed towards Izumi.

"You've been muttering this whole time. It's distracting! If you're here on a pleasure trip, then you should leave immediately!"

What… What….

Izumi suddenly stood up as well, closing her fan soundly. She schooled her expression to show her displeasure, much like the face she usually used on unruly delinquents in her middle school. "How utterly pretentious of you! Let's go point by point shall we? You declare that UA has done a misprint immediately just because Present Mic has not stated all our objectives in our exam. Fool! Clearly his presentation is not yet done. And while Present Mic may not find it disrespectful your tone of voice _demanded_ him to allow your questions. You could have raised your hands like any other student here would have, quietly and waiting for the teacher to permit for you to speak. Present Mic is a teacher here in UA, and you're still a prospect and not even a student yet you dare disrespect his position as a teacher."

She paused for a moment, looking at Present Mic, who seemed to be enjoying the show. She's sure that he is indeed enjoying because she was and she knew Kacchan was enjoying it too.

"Secondly, my so-called mumbling is barely audible. While I do apologize to our fellow examinees if I was disturbing them but you clearly find it too offensive that I have a friend I could discuss this exam with. What if instead of myself, someone else who has extreme anxiety problems and yet wishes to be a hero were the one who was mumbling in my place? You'd have exposed them and discouraged them from following through the exam or even make them freeze up in the battle centre because of your callous words. You want to be a hero, correct? Then learn to respect your fellows and not just jump into conclusions. Finally, Present Mic is working very hard to make this easier for us. I understand we're all just a bit unnerved of the prospect of being pummelled by this examination or not even passing but let's answer Present Mic's enthusiasm with our own, okay?"

With that she sat down and once more opened her fan, covering her mouth and hide her grin as she saw how unbalanced the boy looked. Her eyes, though, retained the icy glare she reserved for unruly people she didn't quite like. Beside her Kacchan was chuckling lowly, fully enjoying as once more the Student Council President of Orudera High strikes again. She could also hear the other students lighten up a bit and laugh out of the boy's expense who was looking rather guilty, but strangely, not humiliated. Izumi thought about his language and it was possible this boy was socially stunted and decided to put that knowledge away for now.

They heard a subtle cough from the voice hero, his smirk hidden behind his hand Present Mic called out, "Ok, thank you examinee 7111-kun and 2334-chan. Thank you for your great question and young miss, thank you for defending my honour." Present Mic's grin was teasing but approving as well.

"The fourth type of villain is worth zero points. The guy's an obstacle so to speak. There's one in each battle centre, an obstacle that will go crazy in narrow spaces. It's not impossible to defeat, but there is no reason to defeat it, either. I recommend that you listeners try to avoid it."

Finally finishing the presentation, the other boy bowed deeply and thanked Present Mic. "Thank you very much! Please excuse my interruption and disrespectful behaviour!" Then he finally sat down.

She could hear the other students finally talking to each other; she could hear a lot of the boys commenting that the exam was like a video game. Well, the presentation looked a video game too, really.

"That's all from me! Finally, I'll give you listeners a present – our school motto! The hero Napoleon Bonaparte once said: _'A true hero is someone who overcomes life's misfortunes.'_ Go Beyond. _ **Plus Ultra!**_ " Once more Izumi soundly closed her fans and showed her confident smirk, it was just as vicious as her bestfriend's "Now everyone, good luck suffering!" As they all left for the buses to take them to their exam site she felt Kacchan grab her arm to face him. "Look, I know you're strong. I **know** that and I acknowledge it, even without a quirk. I am still not happy you're trying for heroics but I'm also hoping you get in. Cause I'll crush you. You dominated our middle school but I'll crush you here and become the Number One Hero." Then Kacchan let her go and power walked to his bus.

Izumi clenched her hands and breathed deeply before going her own way. Once they were on site, she and the other applicants stared at the gigantic gate in front of them.

 _ **I-it's time to do it. It's time to give everything I got from my training the past few years and the effort All Might gave me the past ten months. I will become the hero I always dreamed of being!**_

With that Izumi slapped her face to get rid of the last of her nerves.


	4. Start Line

The Path of Grace

Summary: A Young Izumi's heart is broken when she finds out she's quirkless. But after stumbling on a TV interview of a quirkless but successful actress, she thinks she found her path to greatness. Fem!Deku

Warning: Fem!Izuku

Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

Author's Note: I am so irresponsible. Honestly. I have other fanfictions I have not updated for years! And yet, here is another one! I hope I can actually update this more regularly than all my other would-be stories.

* * *

 **U.A. High School's Hero Course**

 **A training school for those whose goal is to acquire the necessary qualifications needed for pro heroes. Among similar courses across the country, theirs is the most popular and most competitive, and their acceptance rate is less than one in three hundred every year. The hero who refused a National Honour Award – The number one hero, All Might.**

 **The hero who resolved the most incidents in history – The Fiery Hero, Endeavor.**

 **The Winner of the Best Jeanist award eight years in a row – Best Jeanist.**

 **Graduating from U.A. is a requirement for becoming a great hero. And so, I tackled the U.A. entrance exam.**

 **I will take…**

… **my first steps towards my dream of becoming a hero.**

As the buses arrived in the different battle centres allocated to different groups of student hopefuls, Izumi could hear the different sounds of awe that came from her fellow applicants. Previously, they've all already changed into their preferred gear for the exams. They were informed to wear something they would be comfortable to do combat in. In most cases, the students chose to wear different sports wear or casual wear. Izumi thought to wear otherwise.

She wore her shortest black kimono; it only came up to her upper thighs. But like most of the kimono and dresses she owns, there were splashes of colour, in this case, her kimono had bright butterflies embroidered into the cloth making it look like they were fluttering about as she moves. The kimono was so short that if Izumi wasn't wearing her leggings she would have been indecently exposed to her fellow teens; but even then she could feel their wandering and leering eyes. A confident smirk lay permanently on her beautiful face as she observed the other applicants assigned to the same site as her.

Just looking at her fellow applicants, she could not discern any significant standouts except for a few who wore rather peculiar outfits. A few wore karate gi, or some ruffled shirts; but the people themselves acted like they are at any random school sporting event. Of course, there was that brat of a boy who was sent to the same battle centre as her and that girl who saved her from an embarrassing face-plant before the exam orientation earlier.

In her head she recapped Present Mic's orientation about their urban battle simulation examination.

" _As it says on the application requirements, you listeners will be conducting a ten-minute mock urban battle after this! The three different types of faux villains are stationed in each battle centre. You earn points for each of them based on the level of their difficulty. Your goals, dear listeners, are to use whatever way you can to earn points by immobilizing the faux villains._ " Izumi hummed as she remembered the most important details of the pre-exam orientation.

She watched the other applicants stretch and hype themselves up for the upcoming battle. "Omoshire…." Izumi muttered to herself, scouting out today's opponents. They were all competing for the top spots of the exam to get into the only two classes offered for the hero course. Noticeably there were others that had brought their own equipment to help or enhance their quirks. Izumi herself, brought two of her sharpest tessen, one hallow tessen and three sleeping gas cartridges with a fourth already loaded. She also brought one of her stronger tessen which had retractable hook blade and hidden chain which she primarily uses like a climber's axe and grapple hook.

After securing the straps that held her weapons on her thighs, still ignoring the distracted teenage boys gawking at her, she started walking towards the brunette that saved her earlier to wish her luck. Izumi could clearly see that despite the other girl's cheery attitude earlier she was still nervous. Izumi wanted to cheer her up a bit instead of being over-hyped and nervous. Unfortunately, fate had it out for her that day and the idiotic presumptuous boy from earlier tried to stop her.

Upon feeling that wide almost stocky hand on her shoulder she had a glare ready for the idiot once more. Her icy stare usually made people back down or cower in fear, for most there was something unnerving in the cold glare of hers. She's been told that as if a cosmic joke was being played on them and that people seem to always think she was supposed to be a push-over and not the strong-willed woman she was.

"That girl seems to be trying to focus. What are you doing here? Are you taking the entrance exam to interfere with everyone else?" The boy was serious in his accusations and Izumi could feel her blood boil again.

"Care to repeat that; you impetuous, presumptuous, socially inept boy? It seems you're under the impression that what you have been doing is socially acceptable, never mind utterly disrespectful? Earlier, you dare expose me as if I were in the wrong and trying to discuss the exams with a friend? Are you so socially jealous that you cannot accept that I, a complete stranger, am confident enough in these exams that I'm relaxed enough to strategize with a fellow applicant? Maybe it's you whom has come here to interfere with everyone? All I wanted to do was say good luck to a girl who I count as an everyday hero for saving me from face planting earlier." Izumi pointed to the brunette who was looking a bit pink in the cheeks because she knew she was being talked about.

"Yet you come here, once more and try to throw me under the bus for no reason? Are you trying to sabotage me? If I was a nervous wreck and bullied teen who dreamt to be a hero for all their life and you did this to me? I would have rather died than even enter the battle centre or even entirely failed the whole exam because of your callous, careless actions!" Grabbing the hand that hadn't left her shoulder, she gave it a firm squeeze enough for the boy to wince in pain and let go. "Learn to respect people, you're supposed to be a future pro-hero yet your attitude is as redolent as a common thug bordering on villainy."

After that she didn't feel like exposing the other girl and causing more of a commotion. She could feel and hear the attention that was gathered to her and the boy's confrontation. Izumi knew that if she really was the nervous wreck she hypothetically stated, these people would think it was their advantage that someone got called out like this. In a world of heroes and villains, even hero-wannabes forget that villains are the epitome of bullies. She did some quick stretches to remove some tension that had been gathering when suddenly…

"Okay, start!" Did Present Mic's voice cut through the crowd.

One of the first things Izumi learned in the School was to always be vigilant and that the real world won't ever give you a countdown to action. So she sprang forward, leaving everyone behind and staring at her dumbly. They didn't understand that the exam already started. Vaguely, she could hear Present Mic explain about countdowns and real fights.

If there is anything that Izumi knew is that this simulated battle centre would have accurately placed their faux-villains in the areas real villains would usually be at. Sure, she could see many faux-villains milling about but a quick count per area she knew that there were not enough for even half the group she was in to score enough points. This was an urban battle and most urban battles happen indoors. Since this simulated the city, she first went to what looked like a mall.

"Ping pong! I just hit the jack pot." Milling around inside the mall were clusters of different faux-villains. There were more 1 and 2 pointers and a smattering of 3 pointers. With a bloodthirsty grin, she felt her training kick in as she took out two of her tessen. One had the razor sharp edge and the other had the hook blade.

Spotting her first victim, she immediately jumped on a 3 pointer, hooking into a crevice on its neck and using her other fan and sliced the robot's head clean off. This deactivated it immediately but the other robots in its immediate vicinity started attacking her. Using the falling momentum of the robot she was on she quickly jumped and climbed a 1pointer arm where another 1p tried to hit her. This ended with the robots hitting each other strong enough that the robot she was scaling earlier went down as well. Izumi immediately used her hook fan and hoisted herself up to the head of the 2nd 1pointer and just stabbed her other tessen into the robot head. "5 points. I still have a long way to go."

Flinging her hook fan, she engaged the chain on it and tugged herself over tow a set of two 2pointers. Passing behind their backs she had her blade fan open and slashing the cables across the back of the robots, effectively slicing them in two. Once more this disabled the faux villains. Izumi knew that the "kill points" of humans were simulated into these robots. Her actions alerted the other faux-villains; the basic AI of the faux-villains had set protocols not to outright kill the students, serious injuries were still allowed. So, the faux-villains converged on the smirking girl. "Bring it on!"

It took quite a bit of time but as she finished, she noticed she still had 4 minutes to spare. They were clustered so close to each other and no one else came in with her; she racked up points easily and didn't have to run around looking for opponents. She'd cleared out the mall and with a quick recount she had 65 points already. There were five 3pointers in the mall; each had three 2pointers and four 1pointer faux villains. Whoever did the programming on their simple AI took account normal defence formations. So it would mean that outside majority of the bots were 1pointers and 2pointers with 3pointers hiding inside a building and waiting to surprise the applicants.

But Izumi wasn't satisfied with just 65 points; she decided to take down more of the villains and ran out to the next building. Near to the simulated mall was a hospital; she noticed that only one or two others were going inside buildings instead of fighting in the streets. The stocky social inept from earlier she could spy was running around in the streets as well. A flamboyant boy with the ruffled shirt was shooting lasers from his belt but she'd noticed that he seemed to be stealing kills. While some tried to take down their opponent the faux-villains are distracted and the blonde with ruffled clothing boy took it without remorse but with a thank you.

Izumi could see the frustrated actions of many of the applicants they didn't have a lot of time left. Most of them were shouting out the points they've gathered, Izumi understood that there has to be a cut-off so when she heard that some of them hadn't even reached 30 points she felt frustration creep up on her. "Ugh, why am I such a Good Samaritan?" Izumi grumbled to herself as she shouted towards some of the stragglers. "Inside the buildings! There are more villains inside the buildings than outside! Hurry!" Izumi shouted as she ran past other applicants.

Most of them hesitated and decided not to listen to her and just continued to run around trying and, most of the time, failing to find more faux-villains. Some did listen to her and ran into the bigger buildings and she can hear the battles and hear them shouting in victory in getting more points. Instead of her original plan on going to another simulated public building, she ran around looking for other applicants if they needed help. "Damn me and my conscience."

Izumi didn't regret it though, as she saw quite a few struggling against their opponents. She didn't intervene with most of them. Some she pushed out of the way when they were blindsided and about to be hit by a robot. Other times she had to pull out some kids from under a collapsed robot that they defeated. When she saw a purple haired boy with eye bags the size of China's population about to pass out from getting pinned down by a 2pointer, she had to act. Izumi once more threw her hook-blade fan and snagged a coil of wiring on the robot's arm and pulled. The hook-blade was extended and cut the wires immediately disabling the robot's arm and letting go of the other teen. The boy slid down the wall he was pinned to and slumped over in a dead faint. She'd planned to orchestrate it so the boy could get the point but it was too late.

Without hesitation she downed the 2pointer robot and fireman carried the unconscious boy towards the entrance. But as she approached an intersection, she spotted many of the combatants that had battled in open space of the simulated city. She also saw the kind girl that helped her earlier in the day amongst the crowd. "She looks like she's about to throw up." Izumi muttered. She's glad that the other girl got 28 points; Izumi hoped that would be enough for the girl to get in.

Suddenly a loud crash could be heard throughout the city, a large cloud dust rose over the buildings, and the ground shook as if there was an earthquake. From where Izumi stood among the rubble of destroyed robots, holding up an unconscious boy, she spied the giant robot that peeked around the building. A shot of terror ran down her spine but at the same time adrenaline spiked in her as she felt her blood sing. She knows that no matter how hard she trains, she could never defeat a monster that big and it just gave her a thrill.

She should stay away from Kacchan. Kacchan is not a good role model.

Suddenly the overly large robot hit the ground with a fist, sending a gust of dust towards them, almost unbalancing Izumi. She held firm and made sure to keep the boy she was holding upright. The boy stirred and woke up a bit, Izumi smiled at him after noticing, "Don't worry, I'll make sure you'll get to safety." She noticed that everyone was running her way and was about to run with them; she noticed the annoying boy look at her with disbelief before running away with the rest.

Izumi girded herself and resolutely started to drag the boy she was carrying faster. She could never face her mentor if she left this boy alone while he's so disoriented. But a sound of pain drew her attention. Looking back, she saw the girl who saved her earlier trapped under the rubble that the robot kicked up. Immediately Izumi knew that the girl won't be able to run away and will be crushed by the robot. But she had her cargo to take care of. In a split second she made her decision.

She always trusted her instincts.

Rushing towards the crowd that gathered in front of the gate, it was pure luck that they were all near the entrance already, she handed the boy she was carrying to the first person there. Fate would have it that it was the blue haired annoyance from orientation. Izumi didn't care and ran back towards the trapped girl. "Take care of him! He passed out earlier!"

Izumi knew, she had absolutely no hope to take down the behemoth of a robot so she did the next best thing she needed to pull the girl out. Izumi once more pulled out her hooked blade fan, engaging the whole blade and anchoring it deep into the pavement, she also engaged the chain extension. Wrapping the chain around her forearm, she extended the chain to its maximum and reached the trapped girl. She grabbed the other girl's arm and shouted, "Hold on tight!"

Then she activated a secondary feature of the hook blade fan; the hook dug into the ground as a retracting system of the blade was engaged. Izumi felt her arm stretch and twinge in pain at the sudden pull but she held fast and both her and the trapped girl were pulled away from the rubble. They both skidded across the pavement towards her hooked fan but years of practice had Izumi hauling the other girl and standing before they got to her anchored fan. She quickly disengaged the bladed hook, leaving it embedded on the ground but pulling free her fan, she dragged herself and the other girl towards safety.

As soon as they both reached the other applicants, she heard Present Mic's voice announce, "Time's Up!" All over she could see applicants winding down from the battle and the giant robot shutting down. She sent a relieved smile towards the girl she was still holding up. "I'm glad that I was able to reach you. Are you ok? I'm sorry that you got dragged down the dirt with me. It was the only way for me to get us away from that robot."

"Y-you… You saved me. Thank you." The other girl was a bit too speechless and couldn't say another word before she let go of Izumi, faced to the side and vomited. Izumi could only stare before she could feel her body reacting to seeing someone vomit and almost vomited as well. Looking away, she surveyed her fellow applicants and saw that many had scrapes and bruises all over.

Seeing the other applicant she helped, the purple haired boy she dragged along the battle centre, was already awake but somewhat dazed; Izumi decided to see if she can help out. Crouching next to the purple haired boy, the annoying eye-glasses boy standing uselessly beside them, Izumi sent a smile to the purple haired boy. "Hey, you ok?"

It took a while but the boy's eyes showed recognition. "I… You're the one that helped me." The boy's voice was weak and small, like he couldn't believe what happened.

"I just did what was right. You needed help and everyone was too busy trying to get their points, I was passing by and saw you got trapped and I wanted to help. By the way, I'm Izumi. What's your name?" Izumi felt her filter slip a bit and almost went into mumbling mode again. The boy took a few seconds before hesitatingly answered, "Shinsou Hitoshi."

Izumi nodded, happy. "Hajimemashite. And may I now know how you feel?" The boy didn't answer her question earlier; probably because Hitoshi was too dazed.

"I'm kinda sore and dizzy… Why… Why did you help me? You could've just… continued getting more points if you could down the robots so easily." Hitoshi's answer started out with a dead tone but his bitterness seeped into his demeanour as he questioned Izumi's motives.

Izumi could practically taste Hitoshi's emotions and felt that this boy needs more saving.

She just knew it.

"It's simple, you needed help and I gave it. Truth is, I think it's unheroic to not help people clearly in need. Everyone here is so focused on getting their own points that it's almost like tunnel vision for everyone. We're all here, trying for the exams to be hero students, and yet we focused more on ourselves rather than others. While I ran through the streets I've seen a lot of the others kill steal as if we're in a multiplayer RPG, and the other players who desperately need those kills are just NPC's that don't matter." Her voice carried to the other student-applicants and she can see their guilty faces.

The boy with glasses she'd reprimanded spoke up then, "Of course, we would have helped! If this wasn't an exam then…!" But the boy suddenly cut himself off, as if suddenly realizing something.

Izumi could feel her anger boiling again and suddenly stood up. "Fool! Exam or not, we are all here to become heroes. If you're so focused on your own success and not the safety of others, maybe you're in the wrong place. A hero's duty is to the people, not to be the flashiest badass in fights. If you want to be that flashy join the media, if you want to be a hero stop thinking of only yourself and start thinking about helping others."

Izumi walked away before she bursts out in full on rant mode again; she went to the other girl she saved, still leaning over her own vomit. "Hey, let's get you away from this mess and somewhere you won't be reminded of that." Izumi held the brunette's arm as she gently led her away and towards the other students gathering around, waiting for instructions.

With her trained hearing Izumi could hear the soft patter of someone's feet in time with a cane. Looking around she saw an old lady in a hero costume saying, "Okay, good work. Good work, good work. Here you go. Here are some gummies. Eat some gummies." The elderly hero passed around gummy candies to those who were clearly tired but not injured much more than a few scratches here or there. More than a few were confused by the appearance of the geriatric heroine. Thankfully, Izumi didn't need to clarify as the boy with the white ruffled shirt spoke up.

"That mademoiselle is the backbone of U.A." The heroine came up to their little group, "Are you alright, dearies?" Izumi smiled kindly and nodded to the two she helped. "Hitoshi-kun here almost got crushed by a robot earlier. He passed out from being pinned for so long. And she was trapped under the rubble earlier when the zero-pointer went berserk. I'm sorry, what's your name?

The brunette girl smiled a bit, "Uraraka Ochako desu. Yoroshiku onegai shimasu."

Izumi smiled widely, "Midoriya Izumi desu, Kochira koso yoroshiku onegai shimasu." The elderly heroine smiled and puckered up to kiss both Shinsou and Uraraka. As her lips extended in what looks like an application of her quirk Izumi felt her heartbeat quickening. She was witnessing one of the rarest forms of healing quirks in the world! Unlike her though, everyone else around her were surprised and were asking out loud on what was happening. The boy with the ruffled shirt continued his explanation then, "U.A. High's licensed school nurse… the Youthful Heroine, Recovery Girl!"

A noticeably green glow covered both Shinsou and Uraraka in the area they were most affected. Shinsou's glow focused on his throat and torso, it probably meant that Shinsou was suffering from the side effects of choking. While Uraraka's were concentrated on her head, though her throat and abdominal area also glowed; she was being healed from her nausea.

"Her quirk is the super-activation of healing ability. U.A. can only go through with such a reckless entrance exam because of her." Succinct with perfect timing of his explanation, Izumi felt that the boy with ruffles likes to the type of hero who shows off a lot, an entertainer to be sure.

Recovery Girl didn't wait for her patients to get up and called out if there were others who were injured. Izumi was happy that things went well for everyone. As she stood up she felt the stare of the eyeglasses boy and can see his eyes gaining a calculating glint. Izumi just raised an eyebrow and left, she didn't want to interact with the boy more than she'd already had.

As she left the battle grounds she found herself being driven back to the front gates along with the other buses from the other battle centres. After getting changed out her kimono battle gear she looked around the entrance to look for her best friend.. Waving Kacchan over, she grinned at her friend who looked especially smug. "Points?" Izumi asked.

"77 points. You?" Of course Katsuki would also ask her.

"65 points. You win this round." Izumi smiled as she popped open one of her ordinary fans. Hiding her grin behind the fan, she knew that Kacchan was frustrated that she has a chance of getting into heroics. But more importantly, "Hey, wanna go to The Den this weekend? I've done some serious training recently and I hadn't the chance to test myself out." Izumi wanted Kacchan with her when she goes to the underground fighting rings the coming weekend. Mostly it was to show off and make him understand that she deserves his acknowledgement that she can be a hero. And, she really wanted to see how much she'd changed since her training with All Might started. It's hard to gauge her strength against robots.

"Feh, sure." Kacchan scoffed as they continued their way towards the train station so that they can get home already.

That weekend, she and Kacchan got to the entrance of The Den where a bouncer with a warping quirk awaited. They presented their ID cards showing they were members of this particular fighting club before they were transported to a club with three fighting rings in the centre. There were no scheduled matches, so there weren't as many patrons tonight. Even so, there were fighters milling about, waiting for a challenge.

The guests who were milling around were a mix of heroes, civilians and villains. Though The Den is quite exclusive compared to the other fighting clubs, there were still a lot of the unsavoury sorts around. Izumi could pick out recruiters from some of the villain groups around, constantly looking for new talent. The pro-heroes that were present were kicking back and chose to ignore the villains who were blatantly walking around and talking about their crimes. Unfortunately, they were talking about previous crimes they had already done and not any planned ones.

The heroes, even if they've heard a confession out of the villains in this place, could not hunt the villain down. What happens in the fight club stays in the fight club. After all, Rule 1. You don't talk about the fight club.

Anyways…

Izumi and Kacchan were regulars in the junior division; they were both also part of the top 5 best in their division too. Out of the hundred or so underage fighters registered with The Den, Izumi and Katsuki usually came out as winners. Of course, that is not to say that they haven't encountered some worthy rivals.

On the farther side of The Den were a group of teenagers who were chatting in the corner. They were collectively known as Class 3-E. The whole group was trained by the world's most powerful assassin codenamed as Shinigami. While not all of them were fighters, they were all considered as part of the underbelly of society as they were trained hitmen. Izumi had encountered some of their girls like Kanzaki, Kayano, Nakamura and Nagisa from the Performing Arts school.

Jelavic-sensei or as they called her Bitch-sensei had been doing guest seminars every month or so in the Performing Arts School on seduction. The Serbian would have her female students tag along with her whenever she did her seminars. Of course, Nagisa was treated as a trap for such girlish looks. It's the only reason why Bitch-sensei brought him along. That, and Nagisa had a powerful mind and great critical analysis; Izumi loved talking with the blue-haired boy given the chance.

And it just so happens one of their fellow Top 5 rankers were part of Class 3-E, Akabane Karma was a monster in the best sense of the word. Akabane's quirk also fit his personality well, Imp allowed Akabane the capabilities of an imp. Akabane had devil wings behind his back and two small horns protruding atop his head. He was able to do short teleportation and has a pocket space to keep his toys.

Previously, Akabane was her perfect sparring partner. They both relied on their weapons and superior fighting techniques to overpower their opponents but this time, she needed someone clearly stronger than her but not someone overwhelmingly stronger. She found her opponent in Kongou Agon, another junior division top ranker. Other than Katsuki whom he's won and lost an equal amount of times, the brute only ever lost twice in his whole stay in The Den, once to her because she used her superior speed and some trickery; the other time to diminutive Nagisa for his flawless assassination technique. Since his only loss to her, Izumi never won again.

Now, she just wanted to challenge the brute because while Agon was a brute, he was also a genius. She wanted to test out her strength and for him to criticize her. With a nudge towards Kacchan she winked at her best friend before sauntering over to Agon. The brute of a teenager already had a scowl on his face as he saw one of the two women he respected. The other was the new captain of Deimon's American Football team.

"Whaddya want, princess?" Agon sat in his usual slump his legs wide open and two girls hanging on him. Izumi let a playful and teasing smile dance across her lips. Sitting on Agon's right leg she cozied up to him, resting her head on his shoulder.

"Well, I was wondering if you'd indulge me in a fight tonight? You know that Katsuki and I are gunning to become pro-heroes, right? Well, I've been training and I need to pick your brains to see if I've improved." Izumi traced her fingers across Agon's chest coyly. The girls who were previously hanging off him looked annoyed that The Den's best girl was taking Agon's attention away from them. Both of the girls were also fighters but they barely scratched the Top 20 of the girls.

Agon's had a neutral face on and was considering the challenge, and then with a leer he looked down at the petite greenette. "And what is in it for me? Well, aside from feeling you up and putting you into your place, trash?" Agon growled lowly.

 _Hook. Line. And now the sinker._

Izumi let out a feral smile as she leaned up and whispered unto Agon's ear with her best bedroom voice. "I've heard about that other woman. She's completely out of our world right? I've seen her pictures. She has _legs_ that go on for _days_ with those _oh so_ perfect muscles you like so much. I can give her my recommendation into the Okiya. We're looking for fresh talents, just think of her out of that awkward highschool girl phase into a _real woman. Like me._ " With that she knew that she has Agon's attention, his bright red flush that travelled from his ears to his neck; she walked away and towards one of the free rings in the centre of the club.

From the corner of her sight, she could see Kacchan seething in anger. Kacchan never liked it when Izumi interacted with Agon the way she always did; a bit of seduction and a whole lot of innuendo. Kacchan sat with Class 3-E and she could see that Isogai-san and Rio-chan holding Katsuki back from starting a fight with Agon. She could feel Class 3-E's Chiba, one of their best snipers, using his quirk of telepathy trying to get ask about her actions. _'I just want to test myself against him. I don't want Kacchan to interfere.'_ Izumi replied and with that, she shut off all distractions.

She was already wearing her battle kimono, this time it was cloth dyed blood red with splashes of black butterflies. She had her tessen tucked in securely on her legs. She had some of her best tessen with her; her hook blade fan that had a blunted blade, and her obsidian metal fan, her strongest and most durable fan. She avoided taking her sharper blade fans as she could potentially kill someone in this no-holds-barred fight club. There were many healing quirked individuals employed by The Den just for healing all and any injured fighters.

Izumi stood facing Agon, who was removing his varsity jacket. Izumi started the footwork for Capoeira. After the first time she beat Agon, the brute had smartened up and had seemingly been able to predict her movements. She had been told by her instructors that her integrated martial arts were crazy enough to be hard enough not to be predictable for most fighters. Plus, she was told she never telegraphed her movements so it irritated her that Agon was fast enough to seem that he was predicting her movements.

Agon, being the impatient brute he was, started their bout by pouncing on her. Immediately, Izumi went on a half handstand and kicked at the right side of Agon, which he promptly blocked because damn his God Impulse quirk. But she could see the surprise on Agon's face as he felt more force than she had before. He stumbled from the surprise and the force of her kick. It was twice, thrice no, five times more powerful than before. Izumi didn't hesitate to follow up the first kick with an uppercut using her left back heel.

She could feel Agon's jaw crack a bit before the boy let the momentum carry him and lessen the force behind her kick. As Agon's body flew off the ground, Izumi completed her body's rotation in a no-hand backflip. Agon made to grab the back of Izumi's neck, she tried to dodge but Agon was faster and grabbed hold of her neck still.

The genius brute kneed Izumi's side multiple times, hard. She could feel her bones creak and crack, gritting her teeth in pain; Izumi pulled out her hook fan and engaged the blunted blade. She hooked it over Agon's neck and in a feat of flexibility only achieved by the type of training she had had, Izumi managed to get both her legs up and around Agon's neck. Izumi managed to get Agon into a triangle chokehold with her powerful thighs.

Of course Agon wasn't going to give up so easily. She was sitting on Agon's shoulder as she squeezed the Agon's neck to asphyxiate the boy enough to have him almost fainting. But she could feel Agon's powerful arms trying to pull her off him. It reminded her of the first time she'd beaten Agon, but the last time, she had pinned the bigger boy facing the ground with multiple of her fans. Plus she had one leg choking him, the other digging on his back while she held his leg with one hand and her foot that was choking her on the other. She won, of course. But that was 3 years ago and Agon had underestimated her back then.

Since then, she hadn't been able to put Agon in another successful choke hold, until now. Agon threw himself to the ground to try and wriggle off Izumi but she held fast, tightening her hold on his neck. Slowly, Agon's pulls and punches were losing steam but Izumi didn't relent until the boy either taps out or knocks out.

She saw Agon hit the mat three times and immediately Izumi let go. She could vaguely hear the roar of the watching crowd as she saw the pale Agon quickly gaining back more colour than he normally did.

She won.

There was only one other person that could beat Agon in their division and that was Kacchan and that was only because of how ruthless her bestfriend was in his quirk usage. But she'd beaten Kacchan as many times as he'd beaten her and now, she beat Agon too. Effectively, she was as strong as Kacchan now. She only needed a few more wins against both and she'd rank tied to the other two.

She felt her friends from Class 3-E hug her and throw her up in the air. Looking down at the grin-scowl of Agon, she felt like she was on top of the world. There was only one thing left…

She needed to be in the Heroics Department of U.A.

A week after the entrance exams…

They should be expecting U.A.'s letter whether or not they got in. The Bakugou's and Inko decided to have a party for their children, whether or not their kids got into U.A. or not. So that morning, while Inko went out for the Neighbourhood circular meeting, Izumi started baking and cooking. They usually did potluck when the Bakugous and her family ate together.

Izumi was usually in charge of desserts. She made some flavoured rain drop cakes, mocha ice cream and coffee jelly. But she also had one rice dish that Kacchan loves, because it was extremely spicy and both Kacchan an Mitsuki-obaa-san loves it. She made two versions of it, one that tolerable to even the most sensitive palates and another for Kacchan and his mother. The super spicy rice dish was almost glowing nuclear red from how spicy it was.

As she finished her preparations and setting the food to stay warm or chill in the freezer she could hear her mother's frantic shuffling across their home. "Izu-Izu-Izu!... Izu-Izu-Izu!... Izumi!" Izumi turned just in time to see her mother on the floor seemingly crawling without moving by the open doorway. And there in her mother's hand was a letter, which was quickly shown to her, "It's here! It came! It's here!"

Izumi quickly took the letter that had U.A. Highschool printed on the bottom with U.A.'s wax seal.

She smiled nervously at her mother and locked herself in her room. There was an 80% chance that she still didn't get into heroics no matter how high a score she had on the battle exam. Sure, she was certain that she passed with flying colours in the written portion and she got more than a decent number of points on the battle exam. But it was still nerve-wracking. Since quirks had become the dominant trait, there had been little to no quirkless hero students anymore. Decades ago, at the same time All Might should still be studying as a hero student, there was still a fair number of quirkless individuals who tried and succeeded in becoming pro-heroes.

But as the years passed by, the mortality rate of quirkless heroes was statistically higher than the quirked pro-heroes; so there had been less and less quirkless pro-heroes. Now, they were just echoes of the past. While it is not illegal for a quirkless individual to try to be a pro-hero, the anti-quirkless movement a decade ago had discouraged that notion. Ten years ago, everyone started believing that being quirkless can be caught like an illness and that they were less than worthless.

Anti-discrimination laws concerning quirked individuals in society were modified to protect quirkless individuals more. But it didn't matter as most people treated quirkless citizens much like the disabled. There was a chance that U.A. will not let her enter into the heroics program simply because she was quirkless. Yes, she will be recognized as an underground hero after a special set of license exams set for her profession but, to Izumi, that meant nothing I she couldn't be like her hero idol.

With much trepidation, she opened the envelope carefully and pulled out a disk, which she recognized as a holographic disk, unto her desk. Immediately, she heard her mentor's loud voice. "I am here as a projection!" This surprised her greatly. Looking up and down from the disk to the hologram she was muttering to herself again. Unfortunately, this time she could not be heard by the author.

"I had to do some paperwork that took some time, so I couldn't contact you. I'm sorry." All Might coughed in embarrassment and bowed lightly to apologize. "Actually I came to this town to work at U.A." All Might's words took her by surprise once more. Her mentor was to be a teacher at U.A.? What utter coincidence that she got him to teach her earlier than her future schoolmates.

Then she saw a hand directing All Might to hurry up. All Might continued to speak with someone off camera before addressing Izumi once more. "Young Midoriya, as you know you've passed your written exam with flying colours. There had been very few others whom received such high marks in the written exams and two of them are teachers in U.A. As the staff is aware, you are quirkless and this has caused some dissent with the teaching staff." This caused a frown to appear on All Might's face.

"But, it seems that you have more allies in U.A. other than myself. Two other U.A. teachers vouched for you, that despite your quirklessness, you are a force to be reckoned with. In addition to your astounding amount of points, even without the use of a quirk you've also accumulated another set of points! Look here! I'm also an entertainer!" All Might pointed towards a screen off to the side, there she could see the footage of herself helping Hitoshi and Uraraka. She could also see herself moving along the streets calling out to other examinees where to find faux-villains and so on.

"How can a hero course reject people who save others and do the right thing? Call that lip service? Bring it on! This is a job that requires risking one's life to put that lip service into practice! Rescue points!" Izumi could feel her inside freeze as she saw a tally of points in front of her this time. "And they're given by a panel of judges. It's the other basic ability we at U.A. look at!"

And there right in the holographic image was a shock. "No. 1 Midoriya Izumi Villain 65 Rescue 50; with a total of 115 points, you've achieved the highest battle exam points in history second to myself only!"

Somehow Izumi felt that she couldn't breathe. "You pass. You've earned the right to join the heroics department!"

Izumi could feel herself shaking and say, "This is too crazy."

All Might extended his hand to her, as if she could reach out and grab his hands through the hologram, "Come, Young Midoriya. This is your hero academia."

And Izumi couldn't stop herself from answering, "Yes, sir." Before she closed her hands over her mouth as she let out happy tears.

She ran out of her room and into her mother's arms as she waved around her official acceptance letter into the hero department of U.A. That night, Kacchan's temper ran hot but he accepted that his childhood bestfriend was going to the same school as him; and into the same department too. He swore that he would be better than Izumi in everything once they officially start their hero training.

 _ **After receiving a lot of help, my life changed and will continue to change. And now, my dream high school life is about to begin!**_


	5. What I Can Do For Now

The Path of Grace

Summary: A Young Izumi's heart is broken when she finds out she's quirkless. But after stumbling on a TV interview of a quirkless but successful actress, she thinks she found her path to greatness. Fem!Deku

Warning: Fem!Izuku

Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

* * *

In a dark room in U.A. lies a congregation of U.A.'s finest hero-graduates and teachers. The teaching staff of U.A. had been discussing the results of the entrance exam. "The cumulative results for the practical exams are out!" said one of the male teachers. On screen showed the points tallied up by the top 10 passes of the battle exams

"I can't believe he basically got first place with no rescue points." A female teacher spoke up. They were currently focusing on Bakugou Katsuki; checking his points as well as re-watching his performance in the battle centre.

"The faux villains acquire their targets and draw near them. In the second half, as others were slowing down, he used his flashy quirk to keep bringing them close and then counterattacking. It's the result of his toughness." Another male teacher spoke up.

"In contrast, there's the first place student; 65 villain points within the first half of the exam. But on the second half, she basically went around and tried to help out other students, even saved a few." The same female teacher spoke up. This time, they spoke up about Midoriya Izumi.

"There had been other examinees who took on the large villain in the past; but unlike them, she didn't foolishly try to challenge this large robot instead took it on by saving a fellow examinee about to be crushed by it." The same male teacher who'd been speaking spoke up once more.

"But, to go into the exam without a quirk like this… isn't she the biggest fool of all?" Another male teacher, quite cynical tone in his voice spoke up.

In the back of the room, leaning on the wall was one of two teachers assigned to teach first year hero department students for their hero studies. Aizawa Shouta had a confident smirk plastered on his face as he contemplated this girl's battle exam. He'd already previously seen how the girl would battle in an enclosed space, surrounded by enemies with civilians to protect. Now, he saw how this slip of a girl could handle herself in a crisis far bigger than a tea room filled with trigger happy killers.

* * *

Dagobah Beach, now that it was clear of trash, was a beautiful place to spend time on. Far away enough from the light polluting cities of Japan, the stars shone aplenty in the night sky and there Yagi Toshinori waited for his student to come to him.

His slim but tall build with his baggy white shirt and baggy green cargo pants were obvious against the bluish colour of the night at the beach. Ironic that he should stand out so much but his student passed him by without so much as a double take. All Might felt that his student sometimes was being intentionally exasperating.

"Shishou… Shishou…!" Izumi called out. "Shishou! Come out already, there's a creepy hobo standing there and I don't want to disturb the nice couple by the gazebo who are totally not being indecent." Izumi said out loud as she spied the said couple turning to her suddenly, their faces red with embarrassment as they were caught with their pants down. "Well, not really. Pants are not down yet but her hands are definitely…." Izumi had let her mouth run off again and didn't notice she'd exposed the couple. Before she could continue her unwitting tirade she was silenced by the hobo, who was actually her mentor before she could embarrass the exhibitionist couple.

"Izumi! That's rude!" All Might in his deflated form had his hand over Izumi's mouth to stop her from continuing while he bowed deeply and smiled apologetically at the exposed couple. Said couple were already walking away when Izumi was able to speak out again, "Aaaahhhh! The hobo has his hand over me!" It seems that Izumi hasn't yet realized it was All Might in his debuffed form yet.

For a moment, the couple stopped running away and thought they'd need to help the young girl who exposed them, no matter how unwittingly. "It's me! _Repeat after me,_ you're not a hobo, you're my teacher!"

Izumi's cheery reply had the couple scurrying away in embarrassment again. "Sorry Shishou! I really thought you were a hobo watching those two being publically indecent!" Izumi really doesn't listen to instructions well at times.

All Might had to look at the two retreating figures and then stare at his student for a few long minutes.

"… You did that on purpose." All Might didn't have a doubt that Izumi deliberately exposed the couple.

Her innocent-looking smile answered All Might's question. With an exasperated sigh, he dragged his hand over his face but once it covered his own mouth he chuckled lowly. "Very cruel of you to do that to that poor couple and to call me a hobo again, Young Miss." All Might's crinkled eyes showed his appreciation of her humour.

Izumi smiled widely for her mentor as they savoured the quietness of the beach. It really was beautiful now that it was so clean, All Might grinned widely while looking around the beach feeling pride grow in his chest. "You've done really well, Midoriya Shoujo." He placed his large hand over her fluffy head of hair and ruffled it a bit. Izumi had a shy but wide grin as she let her mentor ruffle her hair. "Congratulations on getting accepted."

"Th-thank you very much." Izumi felt giddy that her hero idol was praising her. 10 months of gruelling training under this man and she'd gone and achieved their number one goal, for her to get into the heroics program. "You mentioned that… some of the staff was not happy with the results… That I'm quirkless."

This brought a frown on skinny All Might's face; with a sigh All Might decided to try and alleviate his student's worries, "As I'm sure you're very much aware… Anti-Quirkless sentiments had grown a decade earlier. It's not as bad now as it was then but it has impacted the hero industry the most. Statistically there are less than 5% of the total hero industries who are quirkless, of that percentage majority of them are desk jockeys in a hero agency or a sidekick who can't get out of their hero-mentor's shadow. As more and more are born with a quirk, the less the quirkless has been able to fight back. Even more so, the hero industry has taken a drastic but dangerous turn in the last decade alone. While the hero industry will always be fraught by danger and a severe mortality rate, less righteous people are realizing that they can profit more being a villain than a hero."

All Might's points, she knew well and good. Being quirkless, she'd been made aware that she could thrive more on the side of evil than the side of good. The sad fact was that most quirkless individuals were oppressed by their quirked counterparts that they'd rather be evil and be able to fight back than be called worthless, just as she once was called too.

"All Might…" Izumi trailed off as she couldn't find a good reply to All Might's statement. His words hit too close to home, those dark days when she wanted to give up being a hero and follow many others and just give in to the side of evil. Izumi knew All Might was wrong, that there is a way for her to get a quirk. She's heard the stories; of a monster that lives under the bed that even the worst of the worst criminals fear; who has the power to take and give away quirks as he pleases. In return you lose yourself forever in his service. She'd heard the principal at the Performing Arts School talk about him; a literal boogieman for those like her who lurk in the dark.

Izumi clenched her fists and wondered; if she hadn't met her mentor and stayed in the shadows of the Underground, what would she have done if she'd met this literal monster? What would she have done if she was given a glimpse of power and had lost her way in the light? It was too scary a thought to continue so she looked up straight to All Might's eyes and asked, "May I hug you?"

All Might was taken aback but recovered quickly, opening his arms, inviting her into a hug. Izumi enthusiastically took the chance and hugged her hero idol tightly, careful to avoid All Might's wound on his side. "I promise… No matter how long I stay in the shadows, or whatever I have to do as an underground hero; I promise to always follow the light of justice and be a hero you'll be proud of."

All Might hugged his student back just as fiercely; his sallow face had a gentle look and a smile that would've lit up the night, given the chance.

* * *

The next few days were just a bit hectic for both Izumi and Katsuki. Their middle school was informed that their top two students whom they called, "Beauty and the Beast" both got into the prestigious U.A. They were both presented on stage to their whole student body; their graceful, beautiful, and, finally acknowledged, strong student council president gifted them all a smile that melted most of the student body and the teaching staff's hearts. Beside her, the resident bad boy of Ordudera Middle School had a smug expression on his face, slouching as he waved his hand lazily.

Izumi stole a glance at her bestfriend who so happened to have also shifted his eyes to take a peek at her; he chuckled while she giggled as they faced their audience and gave a bow before leaving the stage.

Middle school was both over for them and they had a few weeks to get things in order for high school. Both Izumi and Katsuki already sent their measurements for their high school uniforms and were just working on their costume request forms. Katsuki had his costume designed for ages; he was just polishing up the design on the request form.

Izumi, on the other hand, looked contemplatively at the designs she had previously drawn as a child, the jumpsuit her mother gave her, and her design book for her kimonos. While the jumpsuit was cute, it didn't fit the aesthetics Izumi was gunning for. The jumpsuit suited a boy more than a girl; it didn't accentuate her at all when she tried it on. But maybe that was what her mother was trying to do.

Izumi sighed loudly as she started drawing on the request form a short kimono with wrist attachments for gauntlets where she could hide some of her weapons as well as holsters going around her upper legs and a utility belt. She didn't want to feel too bad that she's not using the jumpsuit her mother bought for her so she used the colour of the jumpsuit for her kimono instead. She requested for the material to be hard-to-tear cloth with extra bullet proof material embedded into the design. Fire-proof and water-resistant; she wanted as much protection that her costume can afford her.

"You know… no matter how good the material is, that thing is a hazard waiting to happen. RPG has girls in ridiculously skimpy outfits like just armour covering their bits and all but that's not how the real world works, Baka-Izu." Katsuki had been watching his friend draw out her costume. They'd been hanging out in his room for the past couple of hours finishing up the needed paperwork for High School. Especially since U.A. was a hero school there were a bunch of legal disclaimers and waivers they had to look over, agree to, and sign. Their parents would counter-sign afterwards. After admonishing his friend, he took his guitar propped on the wall and started to practice a new song he's started to learn.

Izumi turned to her friend with a frown before a sly smirk covered her face. All she was wearing was a long sleeved crop top and jeggings. Spring just started and while the weather was still cool, she could stand the cold better after her training. Standing up, she quickly took off her clothes and only leaving her in her bra and panties. Katsuki cast a lazy eye towards his friend and scoffed, "What's the deal, baka-onna?"

Izumi didn't reply, instead she went to her bag and pulled out a small disk and went ahead and connected it to Katsuki's PC. "Well, as you've proven, me walking around like this doesn't bother you. But what if I went out like this or something similarly skimpy outside?" As Izumi asked her friend, she booted up a program she'd previously installed in Katsuki's PC so that she can program the device she plugged in.

"Oi! What did I tell you about plugging and installing stuff on my computer? Also, why do you have that holo-emitter with you, again?" Katsuki growled out, of course he wasn't going to remove the program but he was annoyed that his friend kept messing around his stuff. "And you know what'd happen to you if you go out like that. There are pervs everywhere and while I know you can take care of some creeps; you'd still be perved on."

"That's right. Sexuality is such an ingrained thing to modern society that instead of men being embarrassed seeing anyone flaunting their assets, they'd perv on them instead. Things hadn't changed since ancient times; men will always say that it's the girls fault they got raped. Especially since sexiness is an everyday thing that everyone encounters; from heroines and their costumes or ordinary girls showing off their assets. That's not going to change any time soon. Plus, my holo-emitter is a great way for a quick disguise. But this time…" With that Izumi finished inputting the data and programmed the disk. Pulling the disk off from the plug it was previously attached to the pc, she turned it on.

Immediately, Izumi was seemingly clothed by the kimono she designed earlier. The kimono was only up till just above Izumi's knees. The sleeves were designed to be longer than her arms but her hands came out from a different hole on the sleeves. It was colored light ocean green, just like the jumpsuit that Inko gave her daughter. There were splashes of colour against the green, red being predominant. The designs that flowed across her dress were fans of different shapes and sizes plus a few butterflies and birds fluttering about.

Seeing her in the design she wanted to submit for her hero costume, Katsuki could feel his cheeks heat up. She looked so pretty in the costume, not that she wasn't pretty out of it. Katsuki just sputtered compliments and asking Izumi to just return to her normal clothes. Izumi giggled as she sat down on Katsuki's computer chair, crossing her legs.

"Kacchan," Izumi started. Getting Katsuki's attention and putting his mind off of her costume for a minute or two. "I think you're starting to understand why I chose this design."

Katsuki swallowed what felt like a lump in his throat, it suddenly feeling dry after seeing his best friend in a gorgeous short kimono. Her other battle kimonos were beautiful but something about the colour and design of the kimono made Izumi seem prettier than usual.

"Sexuality is so prevalent in modern society that seeing a girl in a swimsuit or only in their underwear doesn't faze most people anymore. The standard of heroine suits always accentuates their sexiness, showing off their assets. Of course, there are outliers but those are few and far in between. What people forget is that the standard of beauty has always started with elegance and grace. That's why, you, who've been so used to me walking around in underwear is so blustered seeing me in this kimono." Standing up once more, she did a small twirl; the holograph disk she was using was so advanced that the fabric twirled naturally with her.

For Katsuki, it felt like he was under a magic spell and couldn't take his eyes off of his crush…

Katsuki blinked rapidly and shook his head to dislodge the c-word out of his head. He does not like Izumi like that; she's nothing but a nerdy but deadly girl.

"Fine, fine. Now get out of that holograph and into your clothes. You know that the holograph doesn't last long." Katsuki returned his guitar back to its place by the wall, picked up Izumi's clothes on the floor and threw it at his friend. "If my mom sees you walking like that she'll think I did that to you and beat my ass again." Katsuki continued to grumble as he went to his desk and took a look at the application that Izumi programmed, wondering if he could do something with it for himself since he has a similar holo-emitter stashed somewhere in his room.

Izumi bit her lip and pouted a bit as Katsuki continued to be so cold and ignoring her. It was always fun to tease her bestfriend like this but he's been learning her tricks and now, her costume is only half as effective since he won't look at her. Oh, well. She'd get him again. She's sure that they'll do hero exercises with their hero costumes often in U.A.

Turning off the holograph and after putting on her clothes again, they heard the door open after two sharp knocks.

Bakugou Mitsuki is a very beautiful woman, even if she was in her late 30's already. While Inko was a classical beauty who got a bit chubby after years of stress eating taking care of her daughter; Mitsuki looked like she never aged beyond 25. Still a rather successful and famous model; Mitsuki wasn't likely to be ravaged by time an age like most people would be. Mitsuki was one of Izuku's personal idols, much like she idolized Sawada Kyoko-sama.

Strong, confident, and independent women; Izumi could only hope to grow up to be like them.

"Izu-chan, Inko called. She said that U.A. wants to have a meeting with you, something about the weapons you use." Mitsuki had a kind smile ready for Izumi but shot her son an annoyed look. "Oi, you brat. You two have been cooped up here for hours. Why can't you be a considerate brat and got snacks and drinks for Izu-chan like she does us in her home, huh? You'll never get her to be your girlfriend at this rate."

Izumi could feel herself flush and cringe. At the corner of her peripheral view, she could see Kacchan choke on his own spit.

"What the hell, you crazy old hag?! If she's hungry or thirsty she can get her own food in the kitchen! Not like, she hasn't taken charge of the kitchen here before! Plus, who the fuck wants to be boyfriends with this ugly tomboy? She like, the most uncute tomboy ever! And~!" Katsuki wasn't able to finish his rant as Izumi took out one of her tessen and whacked her best friend on the back of his head before she stomped away from him and his mother.

"Thank you for your hospitality." Izumi said in a sweet voice when she encountered Bakugou Masaru in the kitchen reading the newspaper. Masaru, used to the antics of his wife and son just nodded and smiled to his bestfriend's daughter saying, "You're welcome, Izu-chan. Come visit us again soon."

With a polite bow, Izumi marched to the entrance but before she left she shouted into the house. "See you in school, you uncool jerkass!" Izumi left the house and could hear her bestfriend yelling and then Mitsuki-obaa yelling as well.

* * *

The next day, Izumi found herself standing before the gates of U.A. once more, in a few weeks she'll be starting high school here. It was her dream coming true.

She only had to wait for a few minutes before one of the staff heroes came out to give her a pass and lead her to her destination. The staff hero turns out to be Present Mic whom amicably spoke with her about her entrance. "I couldn't believe it! Pretty Listener, you are the most audacious little lady I've ever met! To think you're quirkless and you have the guts to run into danger like that! I mean, I knew you were ballsy with that little display of a rant in the exam hall but that move at the end of the battle exam? _Crazy!_ "

While Izumi appreciated Present Mic's enthusiasm to congratulate her on her performance; being told that it was crazy that she was quirkless yet able to do what she had done…

Almost enrages her.

It sent flames of fury down her spine. She'd accepted that she was quirkless but she can feel a surge of disgust that another person judged her based on her quirklessness.

Izumi started to feel her hands ache with how tight she clenched her fists as she kept a pleasant smile and tone as she talked with Present Mic. She'd prove it to them. She'll be the best student they have ever considered taking on in the heroics department, no matter if she was quirkless. She'll show them.

It was a bit of a walk but the finally arrived at their destination; a conference room. "Here, Pretty Listener. You've got some heavy hitter guests waiting inside there. Don't be nervous, I'm sure they won't bite… much." With a skip to his step, Present Mic practically danced away, leaving Izumi at the door.

After a swift three knocks to the door, it slid open. Inside the first person she saw or rather the first animal she saw was Principal Nedzu. With him was Tsuragamae Kenji, the dog quirked head police commissioner of Greater Tokyo. Eraserhead, prominent underground hero and consistently one of the two First Year Heroic studies homeroom teacher and heroics study professor in U.A. Toshinori Yagi in his deflated form also sat beside a plain looking man. She guessed he was either a police officer or detective with the way he wore his trench coat.

Yes, she's generalizing, she knows that. But her instincts never led her wrong.

"Ah, our guest of honour has arrived." The high pitched voice of her future school principal rang out in the quiet conference room. The Intelligent Animal Hero climbed up and stood on the conference table holding out his hand as Izumi walked forward.

Taking his hand, Izumi smiled greatly before backing off a bit and bowed low to the other adults in the room. "I'm sorry for making you all wait."

The males in the room just nodded and smiled slightly at the slip of a girl in front of them. But they all knew that looks can be deceiving, especially with the young girl in front of them. They've born witness to her battle exam multiple times already. As well as, majority of them have seen her cornered yet victorious in her Mizuage battle test as well.

In the room, while the most powerful figures were the Pro-Heroes; Izumi was a danger to them as much as they are to her. And Izumi understood that feeling of being trapped; like a poisonous snake trapped in a lion's den.

She was instructed to sit at a chair facing the panel before her. For what else could they be? A group of powerful men and her, a small girl, with the table set up to face the chair she sat, there was no doubt. This was going to be one meeting to be remembered.

"Now, let me start off this meeting and say, thank you all for attending. As most of you know the reason of this meeting is in regards to Miss Midoriya's entrance into the heroic course. We, the staff of U.A., are honoured to have Midoriya-san as part of our student body this coming spring semester. We are not questioning her entrance into the hero department; that has been discussed thoroughly with our staff members already and Midoriya-san has many whom support her and her entry into the department." Principal Nedzu stood on the conference table addressing every one.

"This meeting, instead, will be about Miss Midoriya's weapons. As most of us has seen or been briefed upon, is that Midoriya-san is quirkless and needs her customized weapons in order to defend herself. And those weapons, as we've all seen from the footages, are as deadly as any quirk." Principal Nedzu's words, though praising also implied that she could do nothing without her weapons.

For the second time that day, strangers had gone ahead and looked down on her because of her quirkless status. She kept her pleasant and sweet smile as once more she clenched her fingers to stifle the red hot anger that surged through her. She might have had a micro-expression of her anger and saw some in the panel squirm in what she assumes as guilt.

Quickly, Izumi averted her eyes so as to not make the men in front of her comfortable. It was disgraceful of her to show men emotions and expressions she didn't want them to see. If any of her teachers in the Performing Arts School saw her, she'd be punished severely.

A quick cough from Toshinori-sensei snapped them out of their stupor.

Nedzu spoke up, "Ah, Midoriya-san, please don't misconstrue my words. We have nothing against your quirklessness. To most people it may be a weakness to exploit but all of us here see it as your greatest advantage. You're on par and even better than some of the heroes out there today purely with your battle sense and skill. We all know that you don't need your tessen fans to take down an opponent. But we _are_ here to discuss if you'll be allowed to bring your tessen fans into regular classes barring physical or heroic training."

This time Eraserhead spoke up. "This is not special treatment. Some students with quirks are allowed their equipment to be worn all the time due to being unable to contain or control their quirks. One such student will be your classmate and will be allowed to always wear his equipment no matter what. As I'm sure, you know about the annual Sports Festival. Students are normally not allowed to use support items but exceptions has been made for students who don't have quirks that can be used in a physical state. Such as, you'll automatically be given permission to use your weapons."

"But this comes with some stipulations-wan." The chief of police spoke up. "Much like most of the _pup_ uplace is disallowed every day usage of quirk not related to their work; you'll have to kennel its stronger uses. Aside from the normal usage of a fan, and self-defence; we ask that you don't use your tessen fans in any unheroic manner-bark. Or if you do need to use it to say, whack a bully or a pervert, you may use your fans-wan."

"It is not that we don't trust you, Midoriya-san. But you've been trained by the best to use everything to your advantage; you are deadly in the most basic sense of the word. All we're asking is for you keep those more deadly techniques and possibly those more deadly weapons unused until you're properly licensed as a Pro-Hero." The bland looking man spoke up as well.

Izumi's eyes had locked on each and every speaker to see if she can discern any lies but they were all telling the truth. Turning her eyes towards her mentor for the last year, she could see a pleasant but nervous smile. "Shishou?" Izumi asked.

"I trust you, my girl. And, all we ask is you trust us to keep you safe enough that you don't use your tessen fans until the time is right. Hopefully, that time will be after you graduate U.A. I've seen what you can do with those fans of yours. Pretty as they all are, I know how deadly each one can be. I've seen you bend reinforced metal with one of your tessen and a kick from you. Or that time that I've seen you just casually flick that obsidian fan of yours to a concrete wall and it chipped out a chunk as big as your fan." All Might or Toshinori's words seemed to surprise everyone at the table. It looked as though no one knew that Toshinori had any interactions with U.A.'s newest top entrance exam passer.

"It begs the question then… Why fans? Small knives, true blades, grappling hooks and blow-darts or mini-guns are the usual fare of assassins being trained in your calibre. I understand that it adds to the aesthetic that you seem to focus on but I don't truly see the logic in your weapon choice." This time it was Eraserhead that recovered first and asked the question that has been burning on the back of his head ever since her Mizuage.

Izumi had a big smile on her face while All Might talked but it only grew when she heard Eraserhead ask something she'd been itching to explain since the start of this meeting. "As you've all noticed, I'm a practitioner of Capoeira and Krav Maga. But I felt that it wasn't enough to master these two hand-to-hand techniques. I started to study the Philippine Arnis. Arnis uses any short staff or stick to fight. Anything from a pencil to a stave, a short staff to a butterfly knife or even an umbrella can be used in Arnis. I could have easily used an umbrella for aesthetics' sake but I chose the fan as it could have more uses than an umbrella ever could. Easier to hide too." As she finished her explanation she pulled out her obsidian fan from seemingly out of nowhere but definitely from her leg area.

This made the men in the room stare dumbfoundedly, even All Might; in their heads they were asking, ' _Just where that thing came from?_ '

Luckily there was another person in the room who liked to voice out their thoughts, Nedzu. "Midoriya-san," the Intelligent Animal hero asked, "where did your fan come from?"

The rest of the men in the room nodded to support the question given.

Izumi just gave a mischievous grin before giving the cheekiest response. "Ah, but didn't you know? All girls have hidden subspace pockets where we store weapons. It's called malletspace or hammerspace as usually girls keep mallets or giant hammers in it but we can keep anything we want in it."

Silence…

Izumi continued to keep her cheeky and mischievous grin while the panel were speechless. And once more, her most frequent victim reacted as All Might spluttered bloodily towards the ceiling as his hands were raised in exasperation. And it was just a mess of reactions from the men as they spluttered and guffawed at the sheer cheekiness of it all.

Let it be said, these men have experienced a woman's hammerspace would never dare question a young girl confirming it.

After letting the laughter subside, Nedzu cleared his throat to get everyone's attention once more. "Clever, Midoriya-san, very clever. I truly do admire young people with extraordinary sense of humour. I'm sure, you'll be an absolute delight to have in my school." The Intelligent Animal Hero smiled at Izumi who replied with a slight blush and an embarrassed smile. "Now, joking aside. We can clearly see that you can hide your weapons better than most and while that won't be a problem, as All Might has stated, your weapons can be very dangerous."

"We've already talked to your principal at the Performing Arts School and have been given the specs of the weapons they are aware of. So, the principal and I have decided that while at regular classes, you'll be permitted to open carry three of your weapons." This time it was Eraserhead that spoke up. "As one of the few in the staff that use hero equipment, we understand the need to have your gear with you. So, we ask you to use the three most useful but not-as-deadly as your obsidian tessen as your equipment."

Izumi had a thoughtful look to her face as she strategized which of her tessen were best to be used. She grinned, hid her obsidian fan, and pulled out the three she wanted to keep with her at all times and placed it onto the table in front of Nedzu.

The grapple hook tessen fan.

A pure white fan.

A pretty hand-painted fan.

"The grapple hook fan, I'm sure you've all seen previously from the battle exam. This white fan, is my second strongest next to the obsidian fan I usually favour in close range. It's not as hard but it packs a punch. If combined with a kick of mine, much like All Might said, I can bend reinforced steel with this fan. The obsidian fan is much more deadly. And lastly…" Izumi paused as she opened and closed the hand-painted fan. "This fan has these tiny holes at the edge which…" As Izumi showed them the small holes; with a careful twist of Izumi's fingers tiny needles spiked out of the tiny openings. "These needles are coated with mild sedatives. I have two more fans and each has a stronger sedative than the last; my most potent sedative can knock out a bear in minutes."

The men inside the room all nodded. "Good choices. While that white fan can cause injury, most quirks that get into the hero department can do much worse." The bland man beside All Might spoke up.

"Is this satisfactory?" Izumi asked as she gathered her fans once more while sending a grateful glance at her mentor's earlier support.

Tsuragamae and Nedzu both nodded, satisfied that Izumi would be no more dangerous as the rest of her future colleagues would be.

"Most satisfactory, Midoriya-san." It was the bland looking man who answered for everyone.

* * *

On the first day of April, Izumi spent some time in front of her vanity testing if she'd like to leave her normal puffy hair loose or a ponytail. She didn't need to answer as her mother came in and told her she needed to get going or she was going to be late. With a cheery nod, she left her hair alone and let it be the puffy ball of hair it always seems to be. Grabbing her school bag, she kissed her mom and left the apartment while answering if she had her stuff with her.

With a light jog, she got to the train station just in time for the train to arrive going to Musutafu City. She didn't see Kacchan along the way so she knew that her bestfriend probably got too excited and left for school early.

"Mou, Kacchan is so mean. I could've gone in as early as he did." Izumi pouted and whined to herself as she sat on the train, waiting for her stop.

Finally getting to her destination; Izumi set herself into a light jog to get to the school. With a spring to her step she entered the school with a huge smile. In her thoughts, she was narrating to herself how U.A. only ever accepted one out of every three hundred every year. Four people get an automatic admission through recommendations, and 36 are admitted through the regular exams; just like her. Two classes of 18 students comprise the student body of the hero course at the start of every new batch of students.

At the end of three years, the students in those two classes would have changed some. Most of the time, it was because students have either dropped out or were kicked out of the course; only to maybe join the other departments or to another hero school with lower standards. Of course, there were the exceptional ones who were added from the other courses like GenEd or Support. She knew Eraserhead was one of those students who got into the hero course after his first year Sports Festival participation.

It was a blessing that Izumi felt uncomfortable enough in her current environment that she wasn't voicing out her thoughts like she usually did; that and she had her School Idol mask firmly in place… She hopes.

Reaching Class 1-A's doors; she was forced to stop and stare at the utterly huge door. "Well, now. That's… big…" was what she uttered before she whispered to herself, "that's what she said."

She could hear a sputtering female laugh inside the room. Izumi had a feeling someone actually heard her. Opening the door, she was greeted with the sight of Kacchan having his feet on the desk… again. And this time, it was that eye-glasses wearing, blue-haired kid from the exams who was admonishing him.

"Don't put your feet on the desk!"

And with the smarmiest expression, which Izumi knew he used to annoy people, Kacchan answered, "Huh?"

And Mr. Engine Legs, as far as she could remember from the exams continued his tirade with weird robotic hand gestures, "Don't you think it's rude to the U.A. upperclassmen and the people who made the desk?"

And Kacchan, Izumi knew, would not be able to resist in riling up Eyeglass kid anytime soon. "Nope. What Junior High did you go to, you side character?"

Already, Izumi was walking up to them and Kacchan didn't seem to notice her approach, still focused on aggravating the taller boy.

Mr. Sharpest-Eyebrow-Contestant answered after seemingly to calm down from being aggravated, "I attended Somei Private Academy. My name is Iida Tenya."

'Ah, so his name is Iida Tenya. Iida… that sounds really familiar.' Izumi though to herself she continued to slowly walk to the two boys. "Somei? So you're a damned elite, huh? Looks like I'll have fun crushing you." Kacchan sounded out.

Iida made a sound of surprise with what Izumi thought was exaggerated hand gestures, " _Crushing?_ That's cruel. Do you truly aim to be a hero?"

And before Kacchan could answer anymore, Izumi drew close to them and stood beside Kacchan as she drew her white fan and hit him lightly on the head. The white fan was just a regular, albeit reinforced and incredibly tough weapon but only became deadly with force.

Kacchan quickly swivelled his head to look at his attacker but his throat seemingly dried up upon seeing his bestfriend. She looked REALLY good in the U.A. school uniform, as he'd expected.

Izumi just raised an eyebrow and hit Kacchan's head again with a bit more force. This solicited the pained reaction she knew that Kacchan would exaggerate on.

"Ouch! Kuso-onna! Stop hitting me! What do you want?!"

Izumi just sighed and lightly hit him once more, pointedly looking at his feet on the desk.

Grumbling, Kacchan removed his feet and glared at Izumi; which she smiled back at him. As was customary between the two, she pulled out a small bento she'd prepared the night before, "It's adorable that you're so stubborn but let's be better in highschool, ok?" She plopped the handkerchief wrapped bento unto his table and sat behind Kacchan as was her place in the seating chart given to them. She could feel the stares of the whole class on her and Kacchan; turning, she sent one of her smiles at their way and could see a lot of them melting.

She could also feel a slimy and lecherous gaze focused on her from behind. Turning to look at the perpetrator, she gave her iciest stare to the purple-ball-haired kid. This made him back down and turn his gaze to his lap. Before she or Purple Balls, as she will call him until she learns his name, could say anything Iida spoke up next to her.

"Ohayou! I am from Somei Private Academy. My name is…" Izumi cut him off, "I know. Iida Tenya, is that correct? I'm Midoriya Izumi, yoroshiku." Izumi stood up and gave a shallow bow to the boy whom returned the gesture.

"Midoriya-kun, you realized there was something more to the practical exam, didn't you?" Iida asked seriously as he faced Izumi. And this confused Izumi greatly. "I had no idea… I had misjudged you. I hate to admit it, but you're better than me." This piqued the interest of most of the class, especially Katsuki.

Izumi tilted her head to the side in curiosity. "I don't know what you're talking about. But, if we're talking about the practical exam score, Kacchan and I would be better than everyone here and in the next class." Izumi didn't pull her punches as she revealed both hers and Katsuki's standings.

"Little Miss Perfect here got the second highest recorded score next to All Might at 115 points. I come in second at 77 points." Katsuki spoke up with a smirk. "But don't worry your pretty face, Baka-Izu. I'm going to overtake you soon enough." The ensuing silence from everyone and their disbelieving stares let Izumi have the time to tease Katsuki.

"Why, Kacchan… You think I'm pretty?" Izumi rounded their desks and sat on Katsuki's, her right hand over her chest, eyes fluttering, and a small blush on her face; all perfectly practiced. It wasn't the first time she'd used the same teasing on Katsuki but it always worked marvellously.

Katsuki proceeded to splutter indignantly, like he always did. "Uh… That's not what I meant! I meant that… uh…" Before Katsuki could finish his sentence, Izumi gasped in surprise and mock-hurt.

"Does that mean you think I'm ugly?" While it was obvious that she was playing it up, her new classmates felt like they wanted to beat Katsuki up for making the pretty girl cry; even if it was faked.

"NO! I mean, you're pretty but… I meant that…" Katsuki was getting redder in the face as his anger was adding to his embarrassment. But fate was on Katsuki's side today as the door opened again to let in Uraraka Ochako. The girl Izumi saved.

"Izumi-san! I'm glad we're in the same class! Oh! I hope it's all right with you that I use your first name. You saved my life, I feel like I'm already so close to you." Uraraka exclaimed, once more drawing their classmate's attention on her.

"That's perfectly all right, Uraraka-san. You can call me Izumi, if you'd like." Izumi allowed this new acquaintance call her by her name as she felt that Uraraka would be a great friend to have.

Izumi was given a big hug by the other girl whom enthusiastically replied, "Please call me Ochako!" Pulling back Ochako seemed to live up to her name and excitedly asked, "I wonder if today's just the entrance ceremony and orientation? I wonder, what's our teacher's like? Aren't you nervous?"

Izumi just so happened to tilt her head to the side and look beyond the open door that Ochako just entered and saw a yellow… thing on the ground.

"Someone call the exterminators, there's a giant yellow slug by the door." Izumi practically cursed herself in her head as it seems she was comfortable enough in their classroom for her to voice her thoughts.

Her words, though, seemed to have an impact on the class as a whole. Everyone just seemed to turn and stare at the wriggling yellow mass by the door. When a face popped out of the yellow thing, it prompted a lot of the students to scream in either fright or surprise. The one nearest the door, the one she remembers as being the boy with the frilly shirt in the exam had the absolute _highest_ pitch of a scream from a boy.

Luckily, Izumi was able to supress her commentary, thinking 'Is he a eunuch or something? Boys don't keep that high pitch a voice after puberty.'

Izumi recognized the now familiar face of Eraserhead inside what she now assumes as a yellow sleeping bag. With the most deadened voice, the Erasing hero spoke up, "Go somewhere else if you want to be friends. This is the hero course." The hero unzips the sleeping bag slightly and seemingly drains a juice-pack in one go.

Izumi could feel her eyebrow twitch in surprise along with the rest of the class who all reacted with differing WTF expressions. Eraserhead stands and opens his sleeping bag and steps out while saying, "Ok, it took you all 8 seconds before you were quiet. Time is limited. You kids aren't rational enough."

Izumi can see everyone realizing they're facing a teacher right now and probably a Pro-Hero too. She could see the sheer cluelessness of most of her classmates. Of course, no one would know Eraserhead by face, he's an underground hero.

"I'm your homeroom teacher, Aizawa Shouta. Nice to meet you."

' _Ah, so that's his name.'_ Izumi thought as she watches her classmates process the fact that their homeroom teacher looked like a hobo. What is with her and hobo-teachers anyways?

Luckily, Izumi was, once more, been able to keep her thoughts to herself. She watched her teacher suddenly pull out U.A.'s standard P.E. uniform. "It's kind of sudden, but put this on and go out to the field."

After they all got changed, the students of Hero Class 1-A met up on the field and was surprised by their homeroom teacher's activity for that morning, "A quirk assessment test?!" Almost everyone in their class exclaimed in surprise.

Izumi felt a trickle of apprehension as hears the others question why they were doing this instead of the entrance ceremony or orientation.

Without even turning to face them, Aizawa started speaking, "If you're going to become a hero, you don't have time for such leisurely events. U.A.'s selling point is how unrestricted its school traditions are." Aizawa continued to speak, ignoring the soft gaps of his students behind him. Turning his head slightly, he continued, "That's also how the teachers run their classes. You kids have been doing these since junior high, too, right? Physical fitness tests where you weren't allowed to use your quirks." After finally fully turning to look at his students, the tired scruffy-looking teacher pulled out his phone, showing the standard physical tests they've all done since forever.

"The country still uses averages taken from results from students not using their quirks. It's not rational. Well, the Ministry of Education is procrastinating." With a step back, Aizawa continued on as he turns to her bestfriend on the other side of Iida-san. "Bakugou, you finished second at the practical exams, right? In junior high, what was your best result for the softball throw?"

From her peripheral, she could see Katsuki giving a mild reaction and answering straightforwardly, "67 meters." Izumi had a bad feeling about the tests they were about to perform. What was Eraserhead doing? He knows that she can't compete fairly against quirk powers enhancing her classmates' skills.

"Then, try doing it with your quirk." Aizawa-sensei's words confirmed Izumi's worries. She was going to perform poorly compared to everyone else, surely.

Continuing on Katsuki starting off their quirk assessment test, Aizawa had Katsuki stand in a circle. "You can do whatever you want as long as you stay in the circle. Hurry, give it all you got."

Katsuki was already holding a rather futuristic looking ball in hand already. After some light stretches, Katsuki got ready to pitch. "I'll add a blast to the pitch." Izumi watched her bestfriend get fired-up, literally, after looking bland for close to 5 minutes. Katsuki's catchphrase, "Die!" whenever using his quirk was heard across their classmates. They all watched as the ball flew with a fiery trail after it.

"Know your own maximum first." Aizawa spoke up from in front of them, as they all watched the ball start to fall. They heard a beat from Aizawa's phone when he suddenly turned around to look at them. "That is the most rational way to form the foundation of a hero."

705.2 m

That's what the phone in Aizawa's hand showed them. This drew shocked reactions from their classmates. Izumi could vaguely hear their classmates exclaim how fun things would be, how freeing using their quirks would be, as they had expected from a hero course and so on… And while they all talked over each other about how incredible the distance that Katsuki was able to throw the ball to, Izumi just stared at her bestfriend.

' _So, this is the difference of someone with a quirk and someone like me._ ' There was a distinctive bitter note in Izumi's thoughts as she finally realized how far away the distance between her and Katsuki was. She's always been self-aware that her quirklessness was a disadvantage, no matter how sugar sweet other people's words were. Katsuki has always been frank with her; it's just the first time he's used his quirk in a quantifiable measure seems to rub into Izumi's face that she'll never be as great.

' _All the lessons, all the teachers, all the practice in the world will never give me the same god given advantage these people have over me._ ' Izumi felt her lips purse in annoyance but quickly wiped off her expression. She didn't want them to know her frustration, no matter how impossible it would be for them to know her thoughts.

Unfortunately for Izumi, her best friend had always been perceptive about her and their homeroom teacher did not get to where he was without being able to see more than most.

But there's no time for that as they needed to move on. Hearing their classmates continuing to exclaim how fun their activities it would be their teacher cut through the chatter with a low and hard voice, " _It looks fun_ , huh? You have three years to become a hero. Will you have an attitude like that the whole time?" Then the most villainous smile Izumi has ever seen on a hero appeared on their teacher's face. "All right, whoever comes in last place in all eight tests will be judged to have not potential and will be punished with expulsion."

This garnered a reaction from everyone in the class, including Izumi and Katsuki. Izumi had a severe frown, the edge of her lips crimped down as she bit down on the inside of her lips to avoid showing off more emotions than she would permit herself. She'd known that getting into the heroics department was the easy part, now starts the most difficult three years of her life. Izumi just hopes it wasn't going to end at day one.

Katsuki just scoffed but one could see the worried glint in his eyes as he glanced briefly at his best friend.

"We're free to do what we want about the circumstances of our students. Welcome to U.A.'s hero course!" Aizawa said in an almost cruel but bemused smile as he pulled his bangs back.

"The last place will be expelled? But it's the first day of school! No, even if it wasn't the first day of school, this is too unfair!" Beside Izumi, Uraraka spoke up, believing that their teacher was being too much.

"Natural disasters, big accidents, and selfish villains… Calamities whose time or place can't be predicted. Japan is covered in unfairness. Heroes are the ones who reverse those situations. If you want to go talk to your friends at Mickey D's after school, too bad. For the next three years, U.A. will do all it can to give you one hardship after another. Go Beyond. Plus Ultra." Aizawa continued his speech, his face smug and amused as he gestured ' _come hither_ ' with his finger, challenging them. "Overcome it with all you've got.

His words seem to pump up the class and some started to do simple stretches and hardening their resolves.

"All right, demonstration's over. The real thing starts now."

Test 1: 50 Meter Dash.

Izumi watched as her classmates were tested against each other in pairs of two; their speed recorded by a machine that had a camera and had a minor AI to signal them. Amongst the runners, Izumi observed that Iida has the fastest time at 3.04 seconds. She knew that it related to the engines that were attached to the boy's calves; his quirk. The rest were at 5 seconds or more with only a few standouts.

When it was finally her turn against Katsuki, she could see the frustrated look her bestfriend had. She'd always been faster than him but this time he was allowed to use his quirk, so it probably evens out now.

As they took their position with a rather explosive start from the both of them; they crossed the line at a photo finish. Izumi's powerful legs propelled her into longer strides and shorter time on the ground. She was trained to get from point a to point b at an insane speed; but she cannot keep up the same speed at length. 50 meters was just inside her limitations. Of course, Katsuki, who was finally allowed to use his quirk in a race against her, won by mere milliseconds.

Katsuki 4.13 seconds.

Izumi 4.30 seconds.

She was as fast as any top no-quirk using human competing in sports. But in a long distance run. She'd be like any other and probably quickly fall behind.

Test 2: Grip Strength

She could see some of the boys clamber over a 540 kg grip from a multi-armed classmate of theirs. She also saw Yaoyorozu make a clamp and use it on the grip meter.

So, Izumi brought out her hook fan and her white fan. She made a sort of fulcrum by hooking the white fan's handle which had a circular hole to hang this particular fan up, and placing the grip test between it. She squeezed the handles of her two fans, and the grip meter registered 300 kg of force. This made everyone stare at her. Izumi smiled cutely at them.

But Katsuki decided to be a jerk. "Don't be fooled. She could probably give out about 100 to 180 kg of force from those thighs alone. It's cause of her fans she's able to generate that much force."

Izumi just pouted at her bestfriend for ruining her fun.

Test 3: Standing Long Jump

Izumi just got a score higher than the average, as her powerful legs once more propelled her farther than most.

Test 4: Repeated Side Steps

' _This is easy._ ' Izumi thought as she didn't stop the side steps, until everyone was done, the only other person who didn't quite stop was that purple ball-haired boy who used the balls he produced on top of his head to jump across the side steps. Izumi, on the other hand, was having fun as she basically danced while being recorded.

Test 5: Ball Throw.

She had to pull Aizawa aside and asked if she could use one of her other tools in this particular test. (AhemMiniBombsAhem) And she was allowed. Since she was in her P.E. uniform, she was informed that she was free to use any and all her tools as long as it won't endanger anyone.

So as she stood on the circle where she was to throw the ball, she had rigged a few explosives on the ball. The first one will go off after the ball reaches its highest height, triggered by some buttons on Izumi's white fan. The first burst will release a pressurized smokescreen bomb which will shoot a straight stream instead into a poof of smoke. The second and third are set to do the same at Izumi's will.

Her classmates can't really complain much as Yaoyorozu used a canon to shoot hers.

In the end, Izumi managed a pretty decent score of 400 meters. Though, honestly, she didn't need the drama her classmates brought protesting her using her tools.

But she didn't want to go on a rant at the moment and just raised an eyebrow at them as she stood near Yaoyorozu.

Izumi just looked at them disappointedly with a raised eyebrow as she stood next to Yaoyorozu who was holding back her giggles.

"Alright. Alright. Quiet down." Aizawa interjected. "Midoriya is allowed to use all her tools whenever she is in P.E. uniform or hero costume. She is also permitted to open carry three of her weapons and tools at all times. She does not have a physical quirk unlike most of you. She relies on pure technical skill to even be considered into the heroics department. She did not come in #1 in your entrance exam for nothing. She also earned her 65 combat points from the entrance exam fair and square. If you want to argue about it, go to the principal and ask him why we accepted a talented girl without a flashy quirk."

Izumi just smiled widely at their homeroom teacher as her classmates accepted the fact that she was just more talented than them even without using a flashy quirk. Not that they knew she didn't actually have a quirk.

At least… not that Izumi knew of.

* * *

Note: I absolutely hated writing the quirk assessment exam. Especially about the ball throw. I'm so sorry for the low quality writing of that part of this chapter. It didn't have the same emotional impact as the anime but I just couldn't formulate something that would have the same meaning unless she suddenly had One for All as a miracle.


	6. Rage, You Damn Nerd!

The Path of Grace

Summary: A Young Izumi's heart is broken when she finds out she's quirkless. But after stumbling on a TV interview of a quirkless but successful actress, she thinks she found her path to greatness. Fem!Deku

Warning: Fem!Izuku

Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

Author's Notes: **I deeply apologize for taking SO LONG to update! And the reason is… I finally had enough money to buy myself a few games for my console… and had been stuck playing them cause I can't let go of my controller. Please forgive me!**

* * *

Izumi could see the disgruntled expressions of her classmates sans Yaoyorozu and Katsuki. They may have accepted that she was allowed to use weapons but she can see their discontent with it.

It wasn't the first time nor would it be the last time that people saw her as either a cheater or weak for using weapons and not having a quirk. She just needed to prove to them she was more than what they think her to be. Like she always has done; prove them wrong and win them over.

When she had started training with the darker aspects of the Performing Arts School, Izumi had to go through the worst hazing she had experienced up until then. She was so young compared to the other girls whom were already finishing their middle school or already in high school. And there she was barely reaching her teen years but was going to be taught the subtle art of being a hitwoman.

When she was studying Capoeira, Krav Maga and Arnis with the fighting instructors of the School; her sempai were kind to her. It was always better to start battle training young. It was easier to hone the body to become more flexible or to build up her endurance. It did concern the other nee-sans who were all deep into their Maiko training; that she should start so early. Everyone was accommodating, surely this quirkless girl just wants a head start but, of course, she won't start the other part of the training until she's at least 15, right?

Wrong.

Because of Midoriya Hisashi's influence and the favour owed to him; Izumi was able to accelerate her training so that she could learn the darker aspects of the School. Oh, they've been taught tea ceremony, ikebana, dancing, etc. those beautiful art forms that all new students of the Performing Arts School and Okiya students learn. But the girls weren't allowed to learn how to kill and how to kill efficiently and gracefully until they officially started Maiko training. The rule remained that no girl under 15 were to be allowed to be a Maiko.

But Izumi became the exception.

She was able to convince her teachers that she was as good if not better than the other Okiya students who wished to become Maiko. There were older students whom all studied longer than Izumi and had wonderful quirks to enhance their own aesthetics.

Yet, petite and quirkless Izumi whom only been studying for less than two years and just started her pre-teen years was already advancing to Maiko training. The girls whom all just started or were starting their Maiko training were annoyed to say the least. Their teenage emotions enhanced with the hormonal imbalances of puberty were causing them to take out their frustration on Izumi. They've all been witnessed to Izumi's hard work and dedication while learning martial arts and had been supportive if not slightly envious.

But now, she was advancing faster than all of them and couldn't wrap their heads around the fact she was quirkless and yet here she was, trying and succeeding in proving she was better than them.

In the dark world they're trying to immerse themselves into, as geisha hitwomen dark feelings and emotions easily fester. Izumi's resentment of her own biology's limitation, that it did not give her any quirk at all has been her drive since she started. The growing resentment of her fellow trainees was what pushed them to give in to the baser reactions of those who stay in the dark too long.

Pettiness had always been an issue with girls training to be beautiful. That hasn't changed in the hundreds of years that women tried and succeeded in becoming the prettiest they can be. No matter how ugly their personalities become.

It starts with small things.

Izumi's sandal straps easily breaking. Her make up becoming too easily washed off. Other trainees using what little height advantage over her and block Izumi's view of any lessons they have. Missing and misplaced weapons that she couldn't find until the end of the lesson or the end of the day seemed to happen all the time. Due to supposed mishandling of dangerous substances, Izumi had been poisoned multiple times already. Dirtier and dirtier fighting techniques in teacher sanctioned spars. Her fans, umbrellas and hair trinkets being accidentally smashed or had holes in them.

The teachers never acted upon any of the blatant bullying. The girls were taught to fight their own fights and not rely on anybody else. This was on top of the ongoing anti-quirkless attitudes that other trainees have had since the beginning.

Most people would have crumbled by then. But, not Izumi. She knew that the path she chose won't ever be easy. Each step of the way would have detractors along the way. Whether it was being a hero or being a geisha hitwoman.

Everything was going to be an uphill battle for her.

So she never tattled to the teachers, no matter if they already knew about the hazing and bullying. Instead, Izumi proved why she deserved the advanced training.

Easily broken sandal straps? Replace her sandals with carbon fibre enforced straps; comfortable and stylish. Faulty make up and missing/ misplaced things? Replace her usual bag with a high tech secured bag. Her phone needed to do a facial recognition and retinal scan before the bag can be opened. There wasn't much she could do about her being shorter than the average. Izumi was still young and still had time to grow.

Of course, Izumi wasn't exempt from her own brand of pettiness. While she didn't use the poison they're being taught with, she's laced different substances into the clothes of the girls who've "accidentally" poured poison on her. Her weapons were all replaced with more durable materials, courtesy of her father and his contacts. In fact, everything she needed to be replaced for better weapons or tools was all in courtesy of her father. Having an international spy as a father had its perks. Such as high tech tools at request.

And the teacher-sanctioned spars? She didn't need to do anything extra to get back at her bullies. She just beat them to the ground without mercy. It was for that reason why she was immediately recommended into The Den as a fighter. Only the trained Geisha could seem to keep up with Izumi.

Of course, not everyone bullied or hated her. She found some good friends in the Performing Arts School. Yaoyorozu Momo, Shiozaki Ibara and Utsushimi Camie were all aspiring heroes. Out of the four friends, two went on to official Maiko training while the other two graduated from the lady-like arts.

Both Shiozaku and Yaoyorozu were enrolled into the official Performing Arts School, though they were both trained to be fighters as well as they were training to be heroes. It wasn't as in-depth as Izumi's fighting training but enough to say that they were trained formally before they started hero school.

Camie and Izumi could not be more different from each other. Camie, when not in training seemed to be stuck in internet lingo but she was good enough to get a recommendation into the Maiko program with her quirk being a plus.

In the end, she found friends and enemies in the Okiya, but she'd proven herself more than enough to everyone around her. She deserved her early graduation into Geisha.

She wasn't contracted by the tea houses of Gion yet, but she was required to perform once every weekend. They understood that she needed to become a proper pro-hero first before becoming part of the underworld of society as an underground hero as well.

When she graduates, she'll have two faces to show to society. A pro-hero much like Ryuku or All Might and an underground hero like Eraserhead. Her future was already set for her. She just needed to graduate her 3 years in U.A.

There were just a few more tests to do and so far, Izumi was in the middle of the pack in spite of the fact that she was quirkless. Not that anyone knew yet. There were some tests she did exceptionally well; especially those that tested their stamina and flexibility. Her past 10 months of training with All Might boosted her stamina and endurance to almost unbelievable levels. Even against other girls, she was much more flexible than them and that showed on the results when she could reach her toes and more.

As the results of their first day quirk apprehension tests came out, Izumi surprised herself at achieving 8th place, regardless that she seemed to stay in the middle range of scores. Of course, that was not discounting her outstanding non-quirk usage ball throw, sit-ups, seated toe-touch, side running, and long-distance running. While almost everyone was panting and groaning as they continued to trudge along the long-distance running; Izumi was able to keep her breath regulated and ahead of most of her classmates except for Yaoyorozu, a dual haired boy, and Iida. Katsuki and Izumi was keeping pace with each other.

She saw the name "Mineta Minoru" being the last place in the scoreboard and saw Purple Ball's face ashen and started trembling. She had noticed that the small purple ball headed boy was doing worse than most of them. Worse than some of the girls; even the invisible girl. Izumi had wondered how the invisible girl passed the entrance exam, but she's sure that invisible girl had more to her than meets the eye.

Is that even the correct phrase? It's not like she can even actually see the other girl at all.

Izumi was brought out of her thoughts when she heard Aizawa-sensei speaking up once more. "Mineta Minoru, you did abysmally in the quirk apprehension test today. You will report to Principal Nezu this afternoon to be given your options. Dismissed."

This sent a shockwave of surprise to their group. It seemed that some of her classmates didn't believe that their new homeroom teacher would go through his promised punishment. Izuku had to hold in a sigh and snuck a peak at Katsuki. Her best friend looked nonchalant; she knew that at least he did his research.

"Sensei! That's too harsh!" She could hear Ochako shout out. And, while Izumi was usually sympathetic and compassionate even to the most hopeless students back in middle school; even she wondered why she didn't care about Purple Ball's, sorry, Minoru-san's expulsion.

Her eyes returned to looking at her teacher and classmates even as she also felt Katsuki's heavy stare at the back of her head. She knew that he was wondering why Izumi herself wasn't speaking. After all, Katsuki has seen Izumi stand up to the school administration for unfair treatment of their schoolmates before.

But it didn't seem that she needed to explain herself as she saw an almost wild and feral glint shine in Purple Ball's eyes. Unfortunately, for all that Izumi trusted her instincts and all the training she went through, she still put stock in normal every day people's morals.

And so, even she was surprised when the little devil suddenly shouted, "Oppai Banzai!" And like a small beast, he ripped his clothes open and jumped towards Yaoyorozu, frothing at the mouth and held two of his purple balls in his hands.

But Izumi, if nothing, was always aware of her surroundings and as she had proven earlier, she was quick on her feet and faster even still. With a giant leap towards Yaoyorozu, she had a kick ready for the pervert.

Unfortunately, Purple Balls was much more limber than she had expected. So the little devil twisted mid-air and stuck his two balls on her pant leg instead. He pulled a few more balls and started climbing up Izumi's body instead. It was obvious where he was heading as the seemingly possessed pervert was focused on almost nothing but the obvious swell of Izuku's chest.

A loud explosion could be heard echoing in the field and some of the students had to shut their eyes at the dust kicked up by Katsuki's quirk. With a greater feat of dexterity and years of trust between the two, Izumi and Katsuki managed to twist themselves so that Katsuki could hit Mineta with a low powered explosion to throw him off his best friend. While Izumi herself twisted her torso with her eyes closed so as not to be blinded or hit by Katsuki's quirk.

Purple Balls was soon flying off, looking a bit winded from getting hit by Katsuki's quirk. Izumi, who had her weapons out, was also gearing up to give a proper beat down on the disgraceful pervert but was stopped by Aizawa whom already had his capture gear wrapped around the outrageous molester.

"Jeez don't make me keep using my quirk. I have dry eye!"

She could see her classmates looking horrified at what just transpired. "Never mind the option of staying in U.A. Mineta, your expulsion is not only from the Hero Course but from the school. Disgraceful behaviour like that is unfit for heroics much less an elite Heroic's school like U.A. Children, change back to your uniforms and wait for me in your classroom while I make sure this creep never steps foot into the hero industry for the rest of his life."

Afterwards, they can all see their teacher drag the pervert out of sight. Her classmates then turned to her and Yaoyorozu. While the recommended student looked somewhat shook at the events that just happened, she was beside Izumi and trying to help her friend get the purple sticky balls off of Izumi.

When they realized that there was no way that Izumi could take off the purple balls without destroying her P.E. tracksuit, Izumi brazenly removed the jacket to her tracksuit. The remaining boys had the decency to look away as Izumi's top half was bared to her classmates. An ample sized cleavage supported by a plain sports bra, toned flat stomach and nary a blemish on her skin, Izumi looked like she should be in commercials everywhere.

The girls neatly folded the almost ruined jacket Izumi had to take off while Katsuki took off his own shirt and forced it over his best friend to cover her up. Together the new Class 1-A trooped towards the changing rooms and stepped out back in their regular student uniforms.

Katsuki stuck close to Izumi brushing shoulders as they all walked back together to their homeroom. It was only when they all got back that someone finally decided to speak up.

"Izumi-chan, thank you. If you hadn't tried to stop Mineta-san, he would've gotten to me. It seems like I owe you once more." Yaoyorozu had walked up to Izumi and held the other girl's hands in both of hers. Her friend had a grateful smile on her face as she proceeded to give a hug to Izumi after saying her piece.

"It's fine Momo-chan. We've had each other's backs for so long that this is nothing to the support you've given me all those years. Plus, I would've done the same thing for any one of us here." Izumi gave that gentle smile she was famous for in Orudera, a princess-like aura that Izumi would sometimes radiate from her being. And while it was a tactic that Izumi used to make sure she had easy control and dominion over her subjects (read: the student body and faculty of Orudera High) it also served as a reward. People always seemed to be happier when awarded a glimpse of that princess-like personality she had.

And this triggered for the whole class to start clamouring for her attention.

"That was awesome!" exclaimed a pink skinned girl. "You were like swish! And then he was like bang! Then you're both fwoosh! It was awesome!"

"That was super manly! I mean… that little guy was so not manly but you two were super manly!" A spiky red head exclaimed beside Izumi and Katsuki's desk.

"A bright shining light bursting through the depths of depravity." Quipped a fowl-headed boy.

They couldn't speak more as Aizawa entered the room with a sheaf of papers. "Here, pass this around. You deserve your seats in U.A.; now you'll need to know the rules. Read it, live it. Now, don't disturb me." As soon as he slapped down the sheaf of papers on the first student's table, Aizawa pulled out his sleeping bag, wore it, and was starting to sit down so that he could sleep the rest of the first day away.

But before he could Izumi raised her hand up and called for the seemingly always tired pro-hero.

"Aizawa-sensei. Since we're just going to go over school policies on our own; is it alright for us to introduce ourselves to each other? You don't need to facilitate and I'm sure we can try and keep the noise level to the minimum." The suggestion sounded innocent enough, if it wasn't for the fact that it was Izumi who suggested it. Those who knew her or at least an inkling of her personality knew that Izumi was starting her new kingdom in U.A.

Aizawa just gave a tired nod, not caring that somebody who could be considered as incredibly dangerous will be gathering intel on her fellow heroes-in-training. Katsuki, on the other hand, had a calm and confident look on him. Ever since Izumi began this power trip, where she tries and succeeds in becoming a leader of any organization or class she becomes a part of, Katsuki has been pulled along the ride and enjoying it.

Having control, or at least, partial control of places and groups they're a part of has been useful thus far. By the time Izumi and Katsuki left Orudera, it has become a top choice middle school for the average student. They were even reported to have a healthier learning curve than the legendary Kunugigaoka Chuu Gakou.

It didn't take long and Class 1-A started one of the few normal things they would be doing in their entire High School life. First day introductions.

Since it was Izumi whom suggested their activity, she was asked to facilitate in lieu of their now sleeping teacher. Since they were seated according to their name, Izumi asked them to go by their class number. It went about as one would expect, their personalities were wide and varied. And they all stood out in their own ways.

When it came to both her and Katsuki though… even their reactions were wide and varied.

"I came here to be number one. I'll crush all you extras."

'Typical Kacchan.' Were Izumi's thoughts as she watched her classmates react spectacularly to Katsuki calling them extras again. Izumi had to stifle her laughs as, as she expected, Iida was one of the more vocal ones.

Izumi let out a cough to get everyone back into order but no one seemed hear her. Sighing, Izumi pulled out her white fan and with a resounding crack hit the desk with it, her classmates heads quickly turned to the front where Izumi stood. Though, Izumi had to hold back a wince when she saw Aizawa opening an eye to weakly glare at her from the corner of her eye.

"Please forgive him. He's a Single Minded Neanderthal whose only goal in life is to be able to say he's one upped All Might and become the number one hero. Which, by the way, Kacchan, is exactly _Flaming Pile of Dung's_ dream." Izumi both apologized for and chided Katsuki in one go.

This made her friend explode in curses. "I am in no fucking way like that flaming fuckwad Endeashit!"

This, Izumi noticed, called the attention of one of their more apathetic classmates, Todoroki Shouto. Izumi remembers reading about the youngest son of Endeavor having a dual quirk of fire and ice a few years back after the news of Todoroki Rei throwing scalding hot water over her youngest son's face.

This was something she had to file away for now as Katsuki continued to curse up a storm. They both held a mutual dislike to the current number 2 hero.

So, in times like this, Izumi had a secret weapon. Pulling out a small box of Skittles and taking out a strawberry flavoured red Skittle she flicked it so hard towards Katsuki's forehead that it got squished on impact. With a loud "Ouch!" Katsuki stopped his tirade. "Kacchan, as much as we both loathe Endeavor-san and feel that he doesn't deserve his current position. And I do apologize for comparing you to him; let's finish this day calmly, alright? Momo-chan and I still need to finish our introductions today."

Eventually Katsuki sat down and started rubbing off the crushed skittle on his forehead. Izumi could hear him mutter angrily, "You could've at least used an M&M."

…

There was absolutely no way Izumi was wasting a perfectly good chocolate candy, Katsuki deserved the Skittle to the forehead. She can already see the redness on Katsuki's forehead after removing the skittle.

"Moving on, my name is Midoriya Izumi. Unlike Kacchan over there, I'm here to be a hero. Unlike you all I don't have the quirk to become an efficient hero, so I resorted to using tools and weapons I have been training with for majority of my life. As the person responsible in having the highest regular entrance exam score, I promise to do my best as a hero-in-training." Once more Izumi exuded confidence and that aura that made just about everyone melt.

Katsuki looked a bit incredulous at his best friend. It's like he can't believe she already started her campaign to get their class make her the class leader.

But before Katsuki could speak out, Izumi continued their little activity. "Momo-chan, you're up."

So the day ended with Class 1-A getting to know each other a bit more.

As Katsuki and Izumi walked out of the school, intending to go home together; as they have done for all their school years, something caught their attention.

Well more like, some people called their attention. Both stopped walking and turned back towards the school just to see Iida power walking to them both. "Midoriya-kun, Bakugou-kun. I'd like to apologize for my previous behaviour. It is very shameful of me to think that using all means necessary, such as weapons one has trained for their whole lives a cheat. The fact is that if I lived a few decades ago, I would be considered the cheat because I have this quirk of mine."

Iida spoke with all the seriousness that he seemed to usually have and his hands never quite stop moving and kept swinging in a robotic fashion. "Also, while I still say that your attitude, Bakugou-san, is not fit for a hero… I also apologize to you because I may have accidentally set you off earlier this morning. I've been told by my brother that I sometimes don't understand social cues. So, please forgive me."

This silenced the pair of friends. One thought stubbornly went through Izumi's head. 'Ah, so he does know that what he does isn't always socially acceptable. There's a level of social ineptness in him that can be correctible as long as he keeps socializing like this. Ah, he'll be one of my projects this year then. I wonder if I can have him meme-ing by the end of the year….'

Katsuki could feel a shiver running up and down his spine and he can see that Iida also felt the same sense of doom that ran down his spine. Staring at his childhood best friend, Katsuki could see the scheming look in Izumi's expression. Whatever she was planning would be enjoyable to her and probably painful for everybody else.

"But other than that, I hadn't expected for Aizawa-sensei would actually expel one of us. Though…" Iida was speaking but trailed off as he saw the dark expression that took over both Izumi and Katsuki's faces.

"Truthfully, it is horrifying that someone like that got the slip in the applications. I know for a fact that everyone is screened and interviewed by psychologists in the first round of application months before the actual practical exam." Izumi's tone was tinged with a harsh vindictiveness that bellied her anger at the earlier assault.

But she couldn't continue her rant as they all heard someone calling out to them. "Hey! You three! Going to the station? Wait for me!" The trio looked back to see Uraraka running up to them.

'…Cute!' was the thought that went through Izumi's brain as she watched the other run up to them. Izumi thought Uraraka ran so adorably. But her thoughts were cut-off as she heard Katsuki scoffing "Che!"

Turning to her best friend he was already walking away. "I'll go ahead, Baka-Izu. I got things to do." Without much preamble or even a goodbye to Iida or the incoming Uraraka, the blond boy walked away.

Izumi just gave a soft sigh while her expression softened in fondness. Turning back to the still approaching girl, Izumi changed expressions once more and smiled widely. "Ochako!"

At the same time Iida spoke up, "You're the infinity girl."

Uraraka faced Iida and quickly introduced herself. "I'm Uraraka Ochako. Uhm… you're Iida Tenya and, hello again, Izumi-san."

"Oh, you know each other already?" Iida asked as he noticed that Uraraka wasn't using Keigo with Izumi.

"Ah, kinda." Izumi smiled shyly as she pulled out a fan and covered her blushing face. "I'm not sure if you remember the entrance exam, but we've already introduced ourselves there and I told her she could call me Izumi earlier."

This made Iida lightly hit his open palm with his fist, in an _Ah-hah_! moment.

"That's right!"

To Izumi, at that moment, she felt that the world just tilted in its axis for but a moment. Like a sense of déjà vu, only that there was no memory to compare it to. It just felt like…

"A Copernican Revolution…" Izumi mumbled to herself as she feels as if the world was righting itself again.

"Cope?" Izumi could hear Uraraka ask softly.

"Ano, Midoriya-kun?" Iida was also curious at Izumi's sudden change.

Izumi just smiled brightly at them and gestured for them to start their walk to the train station.

' _There are so many things I can't do. I have to work even hard and do my absolute best. But… All Might, Kyoko-sama…I can at least be happy that I have my friends, right?'_ Were Izumi's thoughts even as she walked with the new friends she made.

The next day…

The curriculum of U.A. High's hero course:

Regular required classes, like English, in the morning.

Izumi couldn't help but snicker at her classmate's expressions on how normal things were. While her and Katsuki just had their normal class attitudes. Izumi was the attentive student and Katsuki the lazy genius.

Lunch is at the cafeteria, where we can buy gourmet food for reasonable prices.

While the food was great at the school cafeteria since the catering was provided by the Cooking Hero: Lunch Rush; Izumi still packed homemade bento for both her and Katsuki. Katsuki was a surprisingly picky eater and needed a daily dose of extremely spicy food. While Izumi's appetite had only grown since her training with All Might and needed to eat more than most. After all, she was still following the training menu All might gave her and that induced great hunger.

And then, in the afternoon, we finally have…

Hero Basic Training.

Before the door even opened Class 1-A heard All Might's distinctive voice. "Watashi ga…"

This caused Izumi and her classmates to eagerly turn to the door and watch as it opens and in comes All Might in a rather dramatic pose. "… coming through the door like a normal person."

Which prompted a few giggles to come out of Izumi as her shishou was definitely NOT coming in through the door like a regular person.

She could hear and see the awe of her classmates in seeing All Might in his Silver Age costume. Frankly, it was the first time Izumi has even seen her mentor in his hero garbs and even she felt excited seeing him in heroic form.

As All Might took large steps towards the teacher's table, Izumi had to hold in more of her laughter and giggles as her mentor was being absolutely silly. Finally, All Might stopped and turned to face the class in a classic hero pose. "I teach Hero Basic Training. It is a subject where you train in different ways to learn the basics of being a hero. You'll take the most units of this subject!"

Then Izumi had to watch her mentor turn around and pose like a body builder, as if trying to gain momentum. ' _Honestly, shishou… the cape is hiding your back muscles and your glutes, there's no point in doing that…"_

"Let's get right to it! This is what we'll do today…" With a dramatic flair, All Might turns with a flash card that read 'BATTLE'.

'… _Definitely an entertainer in a former life.'_

"Combat training!" With an excited shout, All Might revealed their activity today.

She can practically feel the excitement that was bubbling off her best friend's aura. "Combat!", Katsuki growled to himself.

Izumi could feel a smirk crawling up her perfectly formed lips. "… training." Was the soft whisper that passed Izumi's lips.

"And to go with that are these!" All Might, once more, in an over-the-top fashion, flexed and pointed to the wall which had a strange off-colour to it. Like in games and anime, where you know that that one thing is something that you can interact with or the character is going to move.

And Izumi was proven right with her hunch as cabinets came out of the wall containing what seem to be brief cases with numbers. "Costumes based on your Quirk registrations and requests you sent in before school started."

His announcement brought even further excitement to the whole class. "After you change, gather in Ground Beta!"

With a cheerful "Yes, sir!" everyone filtered out to change in the change rooms. Izumi caught Katsuki's gaze before they got in the rooms. He had an annoyed scowl as he knew the design that Izumi sent in while Izumi sent him a rogue smile. They'll see each other in Ground Beta.

Finally, waiting at Ground Beta in front of the exit tunnel, All Might stood, waiting for his students. As the class of 1-A slowly walked towards their teacher, All Might could see them already… Future heroes in the making as they walked out of the dark tunnel and into the light.

"They say the clothes make the man, young men and ladies. Be fully aware… From now on… you are heroes!" As All Might gazed at his students, he had a proud grin plastered on his face, "That's great, everyone. You all look cool! Now, shall we begin, you zygotes?!"

This brought Izumi to contemplate.

The clothing allowance.

Before the students enrolled in U.A. High they submitted their Quirk Registration, physical measurements and desired designs. Only two of those things applied to Izumi. This was so a support company under exclusive contract with the school could prepare state-of-the-art costumes for the students. It's a wonderful system.

Three weeks ago…

Izumi only ever had to submit her desired design, since she didn't have a quirk. But even quirkless people were required to get a quirk registration as one of the National valid ID's.

"Hm… I need to go to city hall to get my Quirk registration for the clothing allowance… I never did get that card since it was such a spiteful reminder… Hm… what to do…" Izumi hemmed and hawed as she looked over the paperwork she needed to complete. She then had a brilliant idea and called her mentor.

"Quirk registration? Oh, you can request it online and they'll send it to you. Should cost less than 500 yen for the papers itself and the delivery charge shouldn't be that much." All Might said over the phone, understanding why Izumi never picked up her quirk registration ID. He, himself, didn't until One for All was passed on to him.

"Really?" Izumi asked, surprised.

All Might chuckled over the phone, for once it was his student that got surprised. Izumi then heard her mother exclaiming that she's home and promptly said good bye to her mentor. "I'll talk to you later, shishou."

Facing the door, it opens to her mother coming in and as soon as Izumi greeted her mother, she was cut off.

"Hey, Izumi…" Inko then proceeds to pull out from her bag a forest green jumpsuit. "Congrats on getting into U.A.! I might've jumped to conclusions though.

Izumi tried to keep a nice smile but she could feel her eyebrow ticking in annoyance, maybe. "A jumpsuit, mom? I really appreciate it… but I don't think that'll work."

Inko pouted and put down the jumpsuit a bit, "It's not much as it is now, though. When you'd dozed off while studying, I happened to see your notebook. You had quite the few designs but most of them seemed too risqué for your age, so I went ahead and bought this based on that one design." Izumi could practically see her mom's thought process. Izumi knows which design her mother was thinking about. A jumpsuit she designed before she started Performance Arts training. When she was an optimistic superhero nerd. Well, she was still a nerd now but not as bad as she used to be.

She kept all her designs in one notebook and her mother probably took the liberty to rifle through her costume design notebook; a lot of which were for her Geisha costumes.

"Mom… I love you and all, but it really doesn't fit my aesthetic…." Izumi gently tried to protest. Inko's smile never dropped off but seemed to get a gentler and sadder look. "I know that and maybe I just want to cling to the past where you're not this incredible young lady about to take the world by storm… And that terrible thing I said long ago kept bothering me, as well. I gave up back then. But you didn't give up. You kept chasing your dream, hadn't you? I'm sorry, Izumi. I'll support you openly with everything I've got from now on!"

With that Inko let go of the jumpsuit and pulled out two long silky gloves, it looked like something you wore to the opera. It had the same colour as the jumpsuit which brought out the colours of her eyes. As Izumi received it, she felt the fabric and knew immediately it wasn't just any ordinary long glove, it was special.

'These are my mother's feelings.' Izumi thought as she held the gloves close to her. 'This will go perfectly with my planned costume. What'll I wear if not this to compliment it!

These were all the thoughts that went through Izumi's mind as she ran through the tunnel behind everyone else. She wore an extremely short kimono dress with black leggings until just shy her knees. The design on her kimono were fluttering butterflies and sparrows, as she ran, it seemed that the embroidered animals moved with her. Her hands and arms were covered by the long gloves that her mother provided with arm guards to help. She wore red flats that seemed to have been reinforced somehow. Her long hair tied in a single tight and uncomplicated braid. And finally, an almost overly simple black ballroom mask covered the upper part of her face.

As she stops and faces her classmates in the open city of Ground Beta, people's attention was drawn to her. Izumi knew that she didn't exactly look like a typical hero and more like a party-goer but she could see that she wasn't the only one who prioritized aesthetics.

"Izumi! You look so pretty!" Uraraka was the first to point out. "Thanks, Ochako-chan!"

Izumi then plastered on a mischievous smile and quickly moved behind Uraraka and hugged her waist. "And you look absolutely sexy in this. The space theme is perfect for your quirk and this really accentuates your body." Izumi teased Uraraka, letting everyone hear while lightly tracing her fingers on Uraraka's sides.

Izumi's actions got her a surprised shriek of laughter from tickling Uraraka. Quickly, Uraraka moved away and stood beside a red-faced Iida whom was embarrassed for his classmate.

"I! I should've written what I wanted… but it ended up being a skin tight bodysuit. It's embarrassing." Uraraka's red face and her embarrassed smile made Izumi smile wider.

"What are you talking about?! I think the support company did really well to enhance your image and give the vibe of gravity, like your quirk!" Izumi gushed as she still looked like she was excited for Uraraka with her costume. At the corner of her vision, she could see Katsuki shaking his head in exasperation while red also dusted across his cheeks in a slight blush.

Then Izumi felt the gaze of someone else on her, and looked to the direction of her mentor and now hero studies training, All Might. The Number One Hero's usual large grin had a tinge of fondness that Izumi knew she shouldn't have noticed. But she did.

Izumi's glad that All Might was enjoying teaching a whole class and not just training her solo.

"Now, it's time for combat training!" All Might finally announced once Class 1-A calmed down from admiring each other's hero costumes.

Once more, Iida seemed to have a lot of questions and immediately spoke up before All Might could explain anything.

"Sir!"

'… _Iida-kun, can you please just let people talk first before you cut them off? It's like you're always going ahead of the traffic light seconds before it turns to green.'_ Were Izumi's thoughts as she stood beside her classmates.

"This is a battle centre from the entrance exam, so will we be conducting urban battles again?" was the question Iida posed to their teacher.

Immediately, All Might brought up his left hand and two fingers in a "v" sign. "No, we're going to move ahead two steps! Most of the time fighting villains takes place outside, but if you look at the total numbers, atrocious villains appear indoors at a higher rate."

This brought a smirk on both Izumi and Katsuki's faces. They were well versed on how the smarter and more dangerous villains come out in the most unexpected places indoors. They've had their fair share of villain attacks in The Den, when unruly and rule-breaking misfits didn't want to follow the laws of the Underground.

"Imprisonment, house arrest, backroom deals…. In this society filled with heroes, truly intelligent villains hide in the shadows!"

As Izumi stood next to Katsuki, her hand reached over to clasp two fingers with her best friend, in a way no one would notice unless they were looking closely. It was hers and Katsuki's signal that they were there for each other or if the other needed support. Izumi, while only had been inducted into the world of the Underground a month prior had been dealing with the unsavoury sorts and activities of the Underground for years while she trained. She had witnessed and had to understand each of the activities listed by her mentor and more as she trained with the Performing Arts School and the Okiya.

Izumi felt Katsuki's answering clench of his two fingers in support of his best friend.

All Might continued as he didn't notice the interaction between his pupil and student. "For this class, you'll be split into villains and heroes to fight 2-on-2 indoor battles."

Then Asui spoke up, "Without basic training?"

With a clenched fist, All Might answered, "This is a real battle to understand those basics! However, the key this time is that there's no robot that you can just beat up."

Momo spoke up from the other side of Katsuki, "How will wins and losses be determined?"

Then Katsuki himself asked, "Can we beat them up anyways?"

"Will the punishment be expulsion like with Aizawa-sensei?" Uraraka asked from beside Izumi.

Once more Iida, had his hands up and asking at the same time, "How shall we be split up?"

"Isn't this cape crazy?" Said the sparkling flamboyant boy at the end of the front row. The question was so out of context that Izumi felt a twitch shuddering through her whole body and her eyebrow ticking in slight annoyance.

All Might looked a bit frustrated and annoyed, so Izumi brought out her white fan and with a flick and twist of her wrist she opened and closed her fan soundly which took everyone's attention. "Let's not overwhelm All Might, shall we? I'm sure even the smartest of teachers cannot keep up with our questions without writing it down. Also, let's stay on the relevant topics, like this lesson and not on ourselves, all right?"

Immediately, a gloomy shadow cast over sparkle boy beside Iida. Izumi didn't particularly care.

"Thank you, Midoriya-shoujou! I'll still try to answer all your questions!" Then pulled out a small notebook.

This cause Izumi to smirk, ' _A script, really shishou?_ '

"The situation is that the villains have hidden a nuclear weapon somewhere in their hideout. The heroes are trying to dispose of that. The heroes need to catch the villains or get the nuclear weapon back in the allotted time. The villains need to protect the nuclear weapon for the whole time or catch the heroes."

"What's with U.A. and video game like set ups?" Katsuki commented under his breath, but Izumi could hear him clearly.

Izumi lightly elbowed her best friend. "Hush." Though Izumi also wore an amused smirk as she agreed with Katsuki.

"Teams and opponents will be determined by drawing lots!" All Might presented a yellow box enthusiastically.

Which was answered as enthusiastically by Iida as well, "They're being decided so haphazardly?"

Izumi had to catch her smile as she heard Katsuki lazily speak up, "Pros often have to create makeshift teams with heroes from other agencies, shouldn't you know that Mr. Somei?"

"I see… While I do not appreciate being associated to my middle school as such, I understand now. The discernment to look ahead…Please excuse my rudeness!" Iida gave a low bow to All Might.

This gave Izumi some thought, ' _Well, at least he's teachable in becoming less rude._ '

"It's fine. Let's do this quickly!" All Might excitedly turned around and pumped his fist high.

Team A – Uraraka and Midoriya

Team B – Shouji and Todoroki

Team C – Yaoyorozu and ?

Team D – Bakugou and Iida

Team E – Ashido and Aoyama

Team F – Koda and Satou

Team G – Kaminari and Jirou

Team H – Asui and Tokoyami

Team I – Hagakure and Oojirou

Team J – Sero and Kirishima

Team K - ? and ?

"Now, since Aizawa-sense had expelled one of your classmates, it seems that Yaoyorozu-san is without a partner. So we'll draw a secondary lot so that three of you can fight a second time; one to partner with Yaoyorozu-san and the other two to oppose them." And so, All Might passed the lot around again and the last team up was…

"Team C Yaoyorozu and Todoroki vs Team K Bakugou and Midoriya." All Might loudly announced. This startled the class, somewhat.

"Looks like… it's the top two entrants of the regular exams and the two recommended students of Class 1-A. It seems like fate herself wants to know once and for all, which is better. Will it be those who had to sweat it out in the regular exams or those who only had to show off in the recommendation exams." Katsuki couldn't contain the excitement and bloodlust off his voice. "Looks like I'll finally put you in your place, Todoroki."

"I couldn't agree more, Bakugou." Izumi could see the tiny smirk on Todoroki's usually cool visage. The truth was, Todoroki was part of the top 5 in the junior division of the Den. Kongou Agon, Bakugou Katsuki, Todoroki Shouto, Akabane Karma and Midoriya Izumi, the top 5 of the Den, the best that Tokyo had to offer in the Underground Fighting Rings.

Three of them had enrolled into U.A. knowing that the chances of them being classmates were nothing but absolute 100%.

"Now, now boys… Let's keep the one-upmaship and alpha male bravado until later. Pick your battles, we'll do this properly later." Izumi spoke up and her beautiful face was plastered with an unholy and confident grin. She'd always wanted to fight Todoroki and Yaoyorozu. The two seemed to be the top of the quirk pecking order and Izumi wanted a bite out of pulling them down a peg.

Because no matter how nice Yaoyorozu was, there was that hint of pity and disgust that always graced her pretty faced when she was reminded that Izumi was quirkless yet could stand at the same stage as her. Though it was usually wiped off with a guilty frown; Izumi wanted to completely erase that reflexive disgust Yaoyorozu had for her quirklessness.

A loud cough had everyone's attention drawn back to All Might, temporarily forgetting that there was a brewing feud between who were supposedly the top 4 of their class. Two boxes, on the right had villain in white ink on a black box and the other had hero in black in on a white box, were placed beside All Might. The hero-teacher put both his hands on one box each and carefully mixed and rifled through the lots inside. "The first teams to fight will be… these guys!"

And they all could see the letter "D" white on black ball and "A" black on white ball.

"Team A will be the heroes, and Team D will be the villains. Everyone else, head towards the monitor room."

With a quick, "Yes, sir!" The rest of their classmates went on and followed directions to the monitor room. This left the participants standing in the faux city street. "Looks like we're up first, Baka-Izu. Know that you'll be crushed like the rest." Katsuki's confident voice sounded through the group of four.

With an answering confident smirk, Izumi faced her best friend fully. "I very much doubt that, Kacchan. I've been able to beat you fair and square a lot of times. This will be just like our usual duels, but this time, we've got independent player 2's, unknown variables that we've never fought with. I hope you don't underestimate us girls. I'm sure Ochako and I can defeat you boys soundly and put you where you both belong. Beneath us."

Soon enough, All Might's voice sounded out after both teams arrived at their assigned building. "Villain team, go in first and set up! In five minutes, the hero team will break in and the battle will start!"

With a quick "Yes, sir!" Both teams got ready. Before the villain team went up, All Might called them out. "Iida-shounen, Bakugou-shounen, learn to think from the perspective of the villains. This is pretty close to a real battle. Go all out. Don't be afraid to get hurt. The boys quickly acknowledged their teachers words while Bakugou's eyes lingered on his best friend.

Izumi was fixing her gloves to be tighter and seemed to be focusing. "If things go too far, I will stop this exercise." With that both boys entered their building.

With the villain team…

"Even if this is training, it pains me to become a villain." Iida spoke up as he got near the fake nuclear bomb. "So our job is to protect this?" With a quick know from Iida, they realized that it was papier-mache.

"Hey!" Katsuki called out. "We got to protect that thing, right? It's papier-mache, so it's still flammable. Plus if it were a real bomb, it can go off if another explosion were near it. I'm not sure if you've noticed the day before but my quirk plus that bomb equals both of us dead if it were real. You guard it; I'll stop the girls before they get here."

Bakugou never even turned to look at his partner; he was focused on the only door to the room. "I see your point, Bakugou-kun, but looking at it at a villain's perspective. Wouldn't you staying here, deter the girls from fighting? You've said it yourself; one wrong explosion from you can set off the bomb."

With a low chuckle Bakugou answered, "Think of it like this. Villains are greedy, selfish people, right? This means that while villains can take as many hostages as they want, even the whole city if they actually have a nuclear bomb… Villains want to live to savour their victory. So… our best course of action, if we're truly smart villains is to take out the heroes, tie them with the bomb and get out alive. If I was the last line of defense, sure we both win by default 'cause **boom** goes the city and the heroes but it'd be a personal loss since we both die as well. Plus, Izumi is a sneaky little bitch. She'd have found a way to get me away from the bomb to avoid accidental detonation."

This seemed to cause an epiphany in Iida, "You're right!" with an accompanying hand motion of his fist hitting an open palm. "You know, Bakugou-kun, I'm surprised at you. In the time I've known you and Midoriya-kun, I'd always thought that you and her were different as night and day, I stand myself to be corrected. You're both very similar in your way of thinking."

This brought about an awkward silence between the two as slowly seemingly righteous flames of anger and rage started to emit from Katsuki.

"That damned nerd! She's infecting me with her nerdiness!"

With the hero team…

Izumi and Uraraka held the map in between them and were strategizing. "I know how Kacchan thinks. And I know he'll find a way to weasel out of guarding the bomb and head into combat. Plus, he's smart enough to know that he can't stay in the same room as the bomb or the bomb, if it was in real life may detonate if he sets off a blast from his quirk."

Uraraka looked serious and studied the map. "If only one of us had a more offensive type quirk, I'm sure we can fend off your friend a bit better."

Izumi had to smirk at her new friend's comment. No one knew how much she and Bakugou had fought and sparred in all the years they've known each other. Especially in their matches in the Den, which had resulted in both of them needing serious medical help at times, they'd never held back against each other. Of course, they only employed the medical help of what the Den or the Performing Arts School could give them. They'd be investigated if they went to any legit hospital.

After all, no matter how proliferate the underground fighting rings were, they were all still illegal.

"Don't worry about Kacchan, I want you to focus on finding the bomb but I don't want us talking at all, it'll warn Kacchan and Iida-kun if we talked. Do you know how to use morse code?" Izumi asked as she continued to scour the map of the building.

"Ah… no, I only know SOS cause of watching TV." Uraraka answered a bit lacklustre.

Izumi just smiled. "That's ok, we'll use something a bit more simplified… Here, can you hear the tap of my finger in the audio receiver in your ear?" Izumi lightly tapped the microphone that All Might supplied both teams so that they can communicate with their team mate.

"Yeah!" Uraraka exclaimed happily, the tap was loud and clear for her.

"Great! Now this is what I want you to do… Three taps if you find the bomb. Wait for me to acknowledge with a single tap. Then tap the number of floors. I'll acknowledge again and tap once. Now, this is the part where it gets tricky… basing on the position of the room you find it in, if it's facing the street, tap twice. If facing another building, drag your finger so that it makes this sound." Izumi started explaining to Uraraka how they would coordinate without talking, Izumi then rubbed the microphone and Uraraka could her something being rubbed against the microphone. Uraraka tried it herself and that got a nod form Izumi.

"Good, now once I acknowledge that with a tap again, you'll need to tap one to three depending on which quadrant the bomb is placed. One tap is from the right facing the street, two if facing away from the street, and three if it's on the left while facing the street. If I didn't catch your message clearly, I'll tap twice on my mic, got it?" Izumi smiled at Uraraka whom was looking at Izumi in amazement.

"Wow, Izumi-chan, you'd think you're used to this with how you've managed to plan this out so fast! And you're not nervous at all, even if we're facing that scary Bakugou."

Izumi just grinned and looked up the building. "Well, it's because… we're up against Kacchan… He's amazing actually. He's a real piece of work, but his goal, his confidence, his physical strength, and his Quirk are all amazing. He's a natural genius in battle while I'd had to work my way up. But that's why right now… I want to do my absolute best and take advantage of whatever advantage I have and win." After saying her piece, Izumi stood up and fixed her mask more securely over her face.

Uraraka slyly grinned and looked to her new friend, "A fated battle between star-crossed lovers, huh?"

This brought a squeak out of Izumi and her face blossoming into the most beautiful shade of red, complimenting her green outfit. "W-what?! No, you got it all wrong! Kacchan and I aren't like that!" Izumi had to hide her face and took out her white fan and covered up her embarrassed and blushing face. "Mou… Why do people always assume we're together?! We're just childhood friends!"

Uraraka just giggled. "You two just look so cute together! Like… you two can become our class's power couple! But you know… I agree! Let's work hard together and win this, Zu-chan!"

Inside the building with the villain team…

"Ah-choo! Ah-choo!" Katsuki sneezed twice, which promptly killed his flames of self-righteousness.

"Ah, someone must be talking about you, Bakugou-kun." Iida commented helpfully.

"Urusei!" Bakugou shouted, somewhat embarrassed.

"Now, let's start the indoor person-to-person combat training with Team A and Team D!" All Might's voice echoed throughout the simulated city.

"Let's go Ochako-chan, we'll go in from the second floor, can you make us both lighter? I'll pull us up." Izumi exchanged her white fan for her hook fan and quickly threw the hook- up to an open window on the second floor, while the hook fan's chain extended.

"Yep! Here we go!" Uraraka then touched Izumi's arm and then her won cheek before putting on her costume's helmet. Quickly the two floated up and Izumi dragged the both of them to the open window. Once they both got in, Uraraka cancelled her quirk.

Izumi quickly took a quick look at the hallways of the building and immediately walked to the right. "There's a lot of blind spots, we have to be careful."

Slow, Izumi and Uraraka traversed the floor they were in, hugging the walls while looking around corners first before walking out to an open space.

' _It's scary to think that I have to face Kacchan like this. It's not like when we were in the ring, this time I have to take into account my environment and the fact that I'm working with a relatively unknown person._ ' Izumi thought as she tried not to look at her current partner. ' _Having said that, I've been training for a long time for this type of operation. Covert operations are the main stay of my training, after all. But it is troubling that I have to face Kacchan like this. It's why I'm sending Ochako away as soon as Kacchan makes his move. My quirklessness and her Anti-Gravity Quirk is not much against Kacchan's Explosion and Iida-kun's speed. I have to keep a cool head, those battle simulations at the Okiya about indoor battles and battles in tight spaces… as well as my personal notes… I need to keep them in mind! I have to time everything right._ '

No sooner than Izumi's thoughts ended did she see Katsuki doing a flying leap out of a corner. Already, Katsuki had an explosion ready and Izumi, quick on her feet as always pushed herself and Uraraka out of boy's blast zone. The blast undid part off Izumi's braid on her hair. But it kept its shape, mostly. They both landed face first and Izumi was up again in a defensive crouch, "Ochako, are you all right?"

"Yea, thanks." Was the gravity girls' answer as she slowly tried to sit up from the surprise attack, then Uraraka noticed Izumi's ruffled appearance. "Izumi-chan!"

Izumi, already had her white fan out and ready to fight didn't turn to look at her partner. "It's just a scratch."

The smoke in front of them was waved off by the one who caused it. Katsuki stood tall with a confident grin. "Come Deku, don't dodge."

Izumi answered with her own enthusiastic grin. "I figured you'd come for me."

"I won't do so much damage that this fight gets stopped or that we won't be able to fight those two recommended students… but I'm gonna get close!" Bakugou charged at Izumi, ready for another brawl with his usual sparring partner.

Which was a mistake, as he used his usual first move…

Izumi, already used to Katsuki using the same opening move, no matter how many times she'd critiqued him for it, went in close. Tucking in her white fan under her palm and arm, she grappled Katsuki's opening swing. Vaguely Izumi could hear her partner's comment, "Wow, she's like a martial arts master!"

With some light foot work, Izumi braced her back to Katsuki's front and flipped him over her shoulder. With Izumi's improved muscle strength from All Might's 10 month training from hell, she was able to throw Katsuki harder than usual.

"Kacchan, haven't I told you that you shouldn't keep using the same big right swing? How long have we been sparring, huh? Don't you think you should start listening to me when it comes to your own technique and not just others? I've been writing analysis for all the heroes that I've thought were amazing in my spare time. All those times, you thought I was just studying… I was writing down analysis after analysis of quirks I've encountered every day." Izumi was almost growling as she stared at her best friend. She wanted… no, needed Katsuki to understand, once and for all, that she was more formidable that he'd ever thought her as.

"Years ago, you've called me ' **Deku** ' but know this, it's going to stop meaning ' **useless** '! Kacchan, from now on, the ' **Deku** ' you've christened me with… now means ' **You can do it!** '" Izumi almost shouted to her best friend.

"Deku… I've not called you that for years… but it looks like you've always held that against me… Even when you were scared of me back then… It's what I admire and hate you for!" Katsuki let out explosions in his hand as he growled out.

Finally, the two best friends were about to air out their grievances against each other.


	7. Deku vs Kacchan

The Path of Grace

Summary: A Young Izumi's heart is broken when she finds out she's quirkless. But after stumbling on a TV interview of a quirkless but successful actress, she thinks she found her path to greatness. Fem!Deku

Warning: Fem!Izuku

Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

Author's Notes: I cannot apologize enough! I tried so hard! SO HARD! But writer's block just kept… winning! I'll try harder in the future for earlier updates! I'm sorry! Please enjoy!

* * *

 _ **Last Time…**_

 _Izumi just grinned and looked up the building. "Well, it's because… we're up against Kacchan… He's amazing actually. He's a real piece of work, but his goal, his confidence, his physical strength, and his Quirk are all amazing. He's a natural genius in battle while I'd had to work my way up. But that's why right now… I want to do my absolute best and take advantage of whatever advantage I have and win." After saying her piece, Izumi stood up and fixed her mask more securely over her face._

 _Uraraka slyly grinned and looked to her new friend, "A fated battle between star-crossed lovers, huh?"_

 _This brought a squeak out of Izumi and her face blossoming into the most beautiful shade of red, complimenting her green outfit. "W-what?! No, you got it all wrong! Kacchan and I aren't like that!" Izumi had to hide her face and took out her white fan and covered up her embarrassed and blushing face. "Mou… Why do people always assume we're together?! We're just childhood friends!"_

 _Katsuki did a flying leap out of a corner. Already, Katsuki had an explosion ready and Izumi, quick on her feet as always pushed herself and Uraraka out of boy's blast zone._

 _Katsuki stood tall with a confident grin. "Come Deku, don't dodge."_

 _"I won't do so much damage that this fight gets stopped or that we won't be able to fight those two recommended students… but I'm gonna get close!" Bakugou charged at Izumi, ready for another brawl with his usual sparring partner._

 _Izumi, already used to Katsuki using the same opening move, no matter how many times she'd critiqued him for it, went in close. Tucking in her white fan under her palm and arm, she grappled Katsuki's opening swing. Vaguely Izumi could hear her partner's comment, "Wow, she's like a martial arts master!"_

 _With some light footwork, Izumi braced her back to Katsuki's front and flipped him over her shoulder. With Izumi's improved muscle strength from All Might's 10-month training from hell, she was able to throw Katsuki harder than usual._

 _"Years ago, you've called me 'Deku' but know this, it's going to stop meaning 'useless'! Kacchan, from now on, the 'Deku' you've christened me with… now means 'You can do it!'" Izumi almost shouted to her best friend._

 _ **Now…**_

' _Because Kacchan and I lived in the same neighborhood, we've known each other since we were little._ '

Memories of when Katsuki and Izumi were still children filtered through the two combatants minds. It was a time that Katsuki was greatly ashamed of. The years that blurred together when Izumi was still trying to find her place in a world that rejected her being as an anomaly, were the most painful and awkward time of their friendship.

Already, black propaganda with Anti-Quirklessness sentiments was rampant; and even schools weren't safe havens for Quirkless children. But Izumi and Katsuki's friendship still had a tenuous, if slightly brittle, connection. Katsuki was beginning to show more and more anti-quirkless attitude and was starting to develop a sense of superiority because of his incredible quirk.

It led to a defining moment between Izumi and Katsuki, which unfortunately broke their friendship for years.

It was the height of summer and still somewhat tomboy-ish Izumi followed Katsuki and his friends romping in the woods. Four boys and a girl in an orange top and white skirt stood outside a fenced-off section of the forest. The leader, a spiky blond boy boldly proclaims, "Let's go kill the enemy!" Little Bakugou Katsuki was cute if not crude little boy back then. The other boys looked as excited as their fierce leader while little Izumi looked and sounded quite unsure and nervous as they all shouted, "Okay!"

' _He was the type who could do anything he tried his hand at, a rascal who led a group of neighborhood kids. Good or bad, Kacchan was full of confidence, and I thought he was so cool._ ' Izumi's musing continued even as she remembered the day where everything fell apart for both of them.

Little Izumi lost the look of nervous and excitement filled her cute and pretty face as she stared at the back of her childhood friend and ran after the boys who all already went in.

' _But…after his Quirk manifested, it accelerated him down the wrong path. I thought I'd lost my best friend._ ' Izumi stood facing her best friend her fans tucked into her wrist while Ochako stood behind Katsuki.

"Stop acting as if it still affects you… That damn acting of yours is what I hate the most about you!" Katsuki loudly states even as his hands crackle in small explosions trying to intimidate his friend.

' _All men are not created equal. This was the reality I learned about society at the young age of four. It's a good thing then… that I was born a girl._ ' Izumi's largely unsmiling face gained a bit of a smirk at that thought.

Izumi could hear, even from a distance, a voice emerge from Katsuki's earpiece. Izumi was right to assume that the earpieces provided to them would be loud. Quickly Katsuki was able to retort to Iida, "Just shut up and defend. I'm really angry right now!"

Katsuki's growling voice backed up his statement and it only made Izumi's smirk a bit smugger. Izumi could see that Katsuki was able to mute Iida's sounds from the communicator; looks like her hot-headed friend was firing off all cylinders and not being smart about it.

With Katsuki flicking his left wrist to his back, Izumi saw it was time to move.

"Uraraka-san, go!"

As soon as Uraraka started running, Katsuki was already in Izumi's face; but Izumi knew he was coming and had flipped her white fan to her right hand and guarding against Katsuki's explosive kick while bracing her right arm with her left.

"Looking away? You must be full of yourself!"

With subtle handiwork, Izumi had the capture tape ready to tie Katsuki's extended leg. At first, Katsuki hadn't noticed it, too focused on Izumi being **arrogant** , at least in his eyes. But soon enough he did notice the tape; after all, he was as much as a battle genius as the rest in the Den's top 5 were. "The capture tape?!"

In Izumi's mind, she quickly remembered the move she was basing her current tactic from. ' _Hero notebook number 10, page 18! I'm glad I finally got to see Eraserhead's moves in person! But this isn't enough! What's next? If it's Kacchan, he'll be impatient and swing with his right again!_ ''

Years of sparring and fighting in the ring with Katsuki gave Izumi a great sense of Katsuki's battle style, so as she predicted another explosive right swing came in from her best friend.

With the same type of reflexes that Katsuki was supposedly used to, Izumi ducked under his swing and out of the way. ' _I was right!_ ' were the thoughts that rang in Izumi's mind even as she looked at her friend's look of shock.

Izumi bent to a crouch, her hand holding her hook fan in a reverse grip and her white fan still tucked in her right arm, ready to deploy at the moment's notice. ' _He kicked first this time to keep me from predicting his moves. He's being cautious now… Good. That's right, Kacchan… start taking me on more seriously now…_ '

As the smoke cleared, Katsuki stood facing the wall but his angry beady eyes were locked on target. Quickly he threw his hands to the back, seemingly intending to shoot himself forward again. But before he could, Izumi threw her childhood friend an infuriating smirk and turned tail, running through the corridors behind her.

' _Time to play…_ ' was Izumi's thoughts even as she heard Katsuki's somewhat frustrated voice calling after her, "Come back here, Deku!"

Even as Izumi ran the almost too silent hallways of the building, her thoughts focused on the strategy she was trying to build and follow. _'I can't get close to him as easily anymore. I really hope my plan works.'_

Izumi was sure they'd both been running around the maze of a building for a few minutes already, but she heard her best friend practically screaming out. "Hey! You think you can trick me?! Is it fun playing me like this?! You emotionally manipulative bitch! I won't always fall for your dirty tricks! Try and get me with it this time and I'll really make you pay! Cause I'm better than you!"

Izumi had, the moment she heard Katsuki, started running towards the sound of his screeching. She has to keep his focus on her and not the objective of the exercise. As a team, Izumi and Uraraka were compatible personality-wise, if Izumi were being honest and not hiding behind her veneer of deception. But it wasn't the most effective of combos. Unless Uraraka has some sweet hand-to-hand moves hidden under her puffy sleeves, Izumi couldn't exert her true capability as a control tower as well as an infiltrator.

As Izumi kept up her running and hiding, keeping a close pace with Katsuki, hiding behind shadows just before she's discovered… it was starting to take a toll on her. Her endurance greatly increased with the training with All Might but the constant adrenaline and hide and seek with Katsuki had made her all too aware that it wasn't enough. She was never trained to conserve energy for a long drawn out battle. Quick, decisive… deadly; she was taught to make sure that her targets don't know they've already been dispatched

At the same time, her mind was also nurtured throughout her training. Her teachers saw Izumi's quick analytical mind and exploited it. More than the rest of the other trainees, she was taught strategy, tactics, and the art of war. Izumi was pretty but her mind was the true gem that her teachers polished to near gleaming perfection; with one glaring flaw.

Experience; she lacked the experience to apply her training.

But, she's already started shadowing senior geisha when doing basic missions every weekend or so with the various tea houses that wanted to employ the current youngest Geisha. Now, she's also starting her journey into learning to become a hero. A wholly different monster she was willing to face head-on.

Crouching around a corner almost just steps away from Katsuki, Izumi straightened her appearance a bit. ' _He's completely ignored Uraraka and is shooting for me. He is so predictable. Even if he's made an excuse that Iida-kun accepted, now that I have him riled up; Kacchan thinking to cooperate with Iida is now completely out the window. Kacchan knows that it would've been better to send Iida, who has more mobility, as the advance guard, but he's too stubborn. Now, this might actually mean that he's running around completely on his own and probably not working together. For a brute though, Kacchan is smart; I doubt he'd let himself rage for too long.'_

Izumi started moving again, slipping into corners and making sure that Katsuki wouldn't see her. Checking her gear, she listened to Katsuki slowly and methodically tear the building apart looking for her. And not focusing on their objective.

' _In the first place, our chances of winning were the lowest if we had a head-to-head battle against those two. If Uraraka and I both went to the objective,_ _ _we'd be trapped in a pincer maneuver. If_ the two of us stayed to fight Kacchan, our time would run out. All that's left is to divide and conquer; Uraraka to find the weapon and Iida, while I distract Kacchan. That would be phase one. Phase two can send all four of us to the infirmary if I get my calculations incorrectly. I'll be fine. As long as I'm careful of his palms, I can do this._'

"Where are you?! You shitty nerd!" Katsuki shouted loudly, it made Izumi smirk in glee at her best friend's frustration.

' _There's one more thing I forgot to tell you, Kacchan…_ '

" **You're quirkless! If you were talentless, I'd call you below the rejects. Rejoice; I'll probably consider you as a good leady lady to any biographical movie I'll have in the future!"**

' _I'm no one's leading lady. I will the heroine to my own story and you're the extra!_ '

And while Izumi solidified her determination to face her best friend; to be able to stand in her own spotlight, the boy who had for a few years became the subject of Izumi's nightmares were having his own thoughts.

In Katsuki's recent memories, he could see his best friend's fake smiles and fake laughs; whenever she's told to stay away from the heroic industry. It always made him grit his teeth in anger, though he can't fathom to whom he was nursing his anger. Was it that he was angry that she still kept aspiring to be a hero still? Was it because people were always spitting venom behind their cheerful flowery words? That she should be an idol… and not a hero.

No, he knew why he was angry. It's a lie he tries to hide behind because it was painful to remember… that he almost lost his best friend once…

 **Flashback**

 **A young Katsuki and Izumi were in their apartment complex's playground. Katsuki was doing some tricks with his ball and when tomboy-ish Izumi tried, she only fell, bopping her head with the ball. "Izumi, you really can't do anything, can you? Hey, since you can't do anything,** _ **dekinai**_ **, and your name starts with** _ **De**_ **too, how about we call you Deku, instead?"**

 **The other children** _ **ooh-ed**_ **and** _ **aah-ed,**_ **that Katsuki could read Kanji already.**

 **Izumi's small voice, protesting being called useless, wasn't heard.**

 **Nor were the voices of thousands of quirkless people slowly being pulled away from society.**

" _ **Why don't you know?"**_ **Katsuki was starting to pull into a delusion… shared by hundreds upon thousands of others.**

 **Katsuki and Izumi with their friends were at the banks of a river, skipping rocks. Katsuki managed to skip it seven times.**

 **Deku… Izumi wasn't able to do it.**

 **She was also not able to do anything as day by day, she's seeing less of those nice people in the streets; those who were unbeknownst to her at that time were like her… quirkless.**

" _ **Why can't you do it?"**_ **Katsuki couldn't understand why this pathetic thing he called a friend, doesn't see it. That he and those with quirks were superior to her.**

 **The first time Katsuki manifested his quirk was in their kindergarten class. Everyone applauded him, even Dek-Izumi. She even called his quirk as cool! The teachers told him that he had the perfect quirk or heroics!**

" _ **Oh, I see! I'm amazing! No one is as amazing as I am!**_ **" It's not like he can't help what he would watch on TV! His parents like watching the news, the editorials and political news magazines. He doesn't have his own TV yet. But all he hears from the TV's were…**

" **For their safety, shouldn't the quirkless be isolated? They're a rare species now, isn't it? We don't want them to hinder the more productive individuals in society, don't we? I mean, for their safety! The Quirkless don't have the same natural biological advantage as most of society has. Plus, what if their children continue to be quirkless? What a shame that the next generation will perpetuate quirkless genes! They'll be ostracized either way. Why not just isolate them? They're quite useless compared to most quirked individuals.** **"**

 **Katsuki can't help but hear these sorts of comments and the people who are talking are adults. And adults are always right, right? So it must be true.**

 **After getting his quirk, they were all almost five… and Izumi had yet to get her quirk. It's not unusual for Izumi to say that** _ **she hopes her quirk comes in soon!**_

 **And Katsuki will always say** _ **No matter what Quirk you get, you'll never beat me!**_

 **They all passed their 5** **th** **birthday… and** ** **they all found out that Izu-Deku would never get her quirk.** Useless. It was a sentiment echoed by everyone. She was branded as the weird one in their age. No assurance from anyone could alleviate Deku's shocked-sad-horrified look whenever it was mentioned.**

" _ **You're the least amazing, Deku**_ **" Katsuki believed it. Katsuki believed that Izumi was just a future damsel in distress that he'll save as a hero. That Izumi should just quit trying to squeeze into an industry that would probably kill her… because she was quirkless.**

 _ **Useless**_ **.**

 **So one day… after entering a fenced-off private property, Katsuki fell off a moss-covered log that was their bridge and straight to the shallow water below.**

" _ **I was fine!**_ **" It hurt to fall, the water was too shallow to brace Katsuki from hitting the pebbles below. But the calls of the boys above said that he was amazing, that he could shrug it off. So, Katsuki kept up the bravado. "** _ **Nothing was wrong!**_ **"**

 **But I-Deku had already run down the river bank and into the river with an outstretched hand. "Are you alright? Can you stand?"**

 **And something changed in Katsuki as his false bravado gave in to annoyance. "It would've been bad if you hit your head." And finally… into anger. "** _ **Don't look at me with that face!**_ **"**

 **The same face that Deku had, if not a bit more teary and wobbly when the quirkless girl had run in to save him from the Sludge Villain. "** _ **Stop it..! I'm… I'm better than her!**_ **" Once upon a time, he toxically believed this phrase. And his resentment grew when Deku found that Sawada woman; that she thought she could be a hero like he was going to one day be.**

 **His sentiments when he was a child and as a teenager were vastly different. Because one day… Deku didn't come to school.**

 **Because one day, he came home to find Auntie Inko sobbing in the arms of his parents. De-Izu-Deku was taken. Just like his male quirkless teacher in pre-school. Just like that kindly old man down the street, selling sweet O-Dango. Just like Izu-De-Izumi-Deku was stolen away. Why? Where're the heroes. Why can't the heroes save her?**

" **This is Breaking News. After approval of the National Diet; Japan's Special Defence Force, National Police Force, and some local heroes were tasked to take in all registered quirkless individuals. We just received news that threats are being made to quirkless individuals. The government is doing everything it can to save the quirkless.** **"**

 **But it was a lie. Katsuki's parents and Aunt Inko explained it to him, knowing that he would understand like the big boy he was; that the news was a lie. Why? Why is it a lie? They're adults, why would they lie? Lying is bad.**

" **Because, brat, when people don't understand something. When something is different from everything else, people get scared. And people don't like to be scared so they become angry too, somewhat like you and me. And when people are angry and scared, people do stupid things; even adults… especially adults. The problem is, these people have something we common folks don't have and that makes us unable to do anything. That makes Auntie Inko sad because no matter how much we want to do something about it; we can't do anything, for now."**

 **Japan wasn't the only country to do this. Across the world hundreds of nations with the same sentiment, that the quirkless were blights to humanity, either isolated the quirkless or just refused to provide aid, jobs or service.**

 **Katsuki kept hearing the word 'holocaust' around the house; that his parents and other adults were glad that it wasn't being repeated. Katsuki had to go to the local library to look it up. And, it scared him.**

 **It scared him so much.**

 **He didn't want to lose D-Izumi.**

 **He didn't want to lose his best friend.**

 **It was his fault.**

 **He was so mean to her.**

 **And made their other friends treat her like trash.**

 **And because he was so mean to her; the grown-ups took her away to be even meaner to her.**

 **Like that time she tried to defend another kid…**

 **Was he bad?**

 **Was he bad like those grown-ups that took Izumi? That took Iruka-sensei? That took Sarutobi-jiji from the sweets store?**

 **It was just too bad that it was this incident that pushed Katsuki to a better direction as a hero-wannabe. (** Even if he was still an arrogant piece of shit. **)**

 **Then people started speaking up. Corporations started fighting back… The most powerful man on Earth, political-wise, spoke up.**

 **And one day, Izumi came back. Katsuki almost didn't recognize his best friend. She looked a bit skinnier, a tad paler but more than ever it was the look on her face that Katsuki learned to equally love… like and hate.**

 **Katsuki's been to the zoo a lot of times… and Izumi looked like a Tiger. Pretty (Beautiful) and deadly.**

 **Flashback End**

Izumi had been following her stalking and rampaging best friend through the hallways for a few minutes already. It made Izumi angsty that Uraraka hadn't contacted her yet.

That was when she heard the spluttering laugh of her partner through their earpiece. "Izumi-chan!" This worried Izumi as she had instructed Uraraka to stay quiet. "Ochako-chan, what is it?"

"Iida found me. Sorry! Right now, he's slowly…" Izumi could hear the comical evil laugh that Iida was making. ' _He's so loud._ '

"Where are you?" Izumi needed details and needed it fast, time was running out for them.

"Middle of the fifth floor." This gave Izumi pause for thought. Was it a coincidence that she's been hiding in this corridor while Katsuki ran around the same floor? "You're directly above me." After a brief pause, she spoke into their line, "Take care not to get caught and be vigilant, I'm going to do something crazy."

That was all she said as she adjusted her hold on her tessen and the capture tape. If Uraraka answered, Izumi didn't notice, she needed to act now.

Turning to her back, she smiled sweetly at her best friend. "Hello, Kacchan."

' _He's calm. Mendokuse_ '

Katsuki primed his grenade gauntlets. "They're loaded."

Izumi stayed quiet, waiting for Katsuki to make his move.

"Why are you so quiet? What? You're not going to toy with my head anymore? Finally got tired of your games? Are you underestimating me… Deku?"

Taking a lower stance, Izumi was ready to lash out with either her powerful legs or her deadly tessen. "Don't be coy, Kacchan. We both know that I don't need those paltry little mind tricks for me to beat you. You think I'm scared? I'd be more scared of Agon or Nagisa on a good day."

Katsuki grit his teeth and raised his arm. "You should probably already know, but my Quirk, Explosion, let me secrete nitroglycerin-like sweat from sweat glands on the palm of my hand and make it explode. You've seen me design my suit, so you'd know if they made these the way I asked… then these gauntlets will store the nitroglycerin inside them, and…"

Izumi watched a bit dumbfounded as Katsuki slowly pulled the pin and already, she could see that the materials inside igniting. Izumi was pretty sure that someone was talking to Katsuki as he suddenly answered, "If I don't hit her, she won't die!"

As the fire from the blast quickly flooded the corridor, destroying the hallway; Izumi was helpless as the blast sent her careening through what's left of the hall and into another room. Izumi lay panting from the shock of being thrown backward from the explosion in the new room. To her right, she saw that the building was blown wide open. "Kacchan, you crazy motherf*ck*r!" Sitting up, Izumi dusted down her costume, which withstood the flames, thankfully. She's glad that the materials she requested were approved. It was only her mask that got singed away.

As she stood, waiting for Katsuki to come into the room. She slipped out a few of her bombs and hid it in her hands, much like how magicians hid their tools up their sleeves.

"Wow… The more that's stored in these gauntlets, the stronger the blast." Katsuki walked through the smoke and dust that he'd caused, priming his other gauntlet for another big explosion. "Come on… use those clever, dirty little tricks you have, Deku. I'll force you to surrender even if you're at full strength."

It scared Izumi how deranged Katsuki looked like… It shook loose painful memories of her past; of adults looking at her the same way. Of Katsuki looking the same way when they were children, just right before she thought she was lost to everybody she loved. "Hey, hey… What's the matter, Deku? I didn't hit you, so you can still move, can't you? Come and get me!"

More than anything, Izumi was frustrated (scared. Why are you like this Kacchan? What's wrong? I want my best friend back!)

' _The explosion shot out. He had his costume made so that his Quirk would work even for long distances. This isn't the time to panic._ '

"Ochako, what's the situation?" Izumi spoke into her communicator, seemingly looking away from Katsuki. Izumi knew it would the tsundere that was her best friend. Vaguely, Izumi heard him mutter, "Tsk, Ignoring me. I can't believe her!" But more importantly, Izumi heard All Might's distinct voice echoing from Katsuki's comm. Katsuki was distracted from All Might scolding him so Izumi took task and explained her plan and what Ochako should be expecting in the next few minutes.

There was no time to waste, the moment Izumi finished giving out instructions she had to brace for the impact known as Katsuki. Opening her white fan, she thrust it forward while dropping her body to the ground, her legs ready to kick out. But as much as Izumi knew Katsuki's fighting style; he knew hers as well. A short burst of explosion atop her head and the explosive boy was already changing trajectory and fired a secondary shot directly at her back.

It made her stumble forward but immediately did a pirouette, her leg raised for a powerful kick, at the same time that Katsuki was already surging forward, "Look, here I come! It's your favourite right swing!" With the momentum he gained by accelerating with his explosions, the right swing that he telegraphed stung more than it should have.

Izumi met the hit head-in with a swing of her powerful leg, her hand and arms bracing the ground, her tessen tucked in once more. Fortunately, Katsuki lost this round as he stumbles back. "Feh, your legs are troublesome as usual." Already recovering, Katsuki surged forward once more as he grabbed the leg that Izumi hasn't quite put down yet.

Then with a series of explosions, Katsuki changed his position, pulled and flipped Izumi like a ragdoll. A move he had been practicing but had never perfected because he couldn't produce enough sweat in such little time. "Deku, know this! You are… below me!" Izumi landed on her back, bouncing from the floor, yelping out in surprised pain. ' _He's not giving me the chance to think._ '

But he did, Katsuki for a few seconds stopped his attacks and Izumi quickly scrambled for her prone form to standing right next to the window. The white tessen she had hidden while facing Katsuki one-on-one were back out, "Kuku, I always knew you liked being on top." Izumi teased her best friend. For a few seconds, Katsuki spluttered in embarrassment but quickly recovered.

"I'm not going to fall for your little tricks! I'm done being led by the nose by you! Stop underestimating me!" Katsuki walked angrily towards Izumi, his frustration clear in his voice. "You've always been like this ever since we were kids… Have you been looking down on me this whole time?! You think it was my fault, wasn't it?! That you got taken! Is that why you still treat me like this?! Someone to toy with those dirty tricks you've learned, you bitch!"

' _Kacchan… Katsuki… no… that…'_

"No… That's not it… You're… You're an amazing person! I've never blamed you when I was taken away! I could never! I want to be able to say that I had the right to say I am your best friend! That I can be your equal, even if I'm useless! Compared to everybody else, I have NOTHING but I wanted to be by Kacchan's side! I wanted to be right there alongside you when we're both called the greatest heroes of our age! The best friends who saved hundreds, THOUSANDS of people! That's all I ever wanted, you idiot!" Izumi felt like she was losing her control over her emotions. Her teachers at the Okiya will be utterly appalled by her.

The emotions that ran through Katsuki's eyes were many but it settled in simmering guilt and anger. "Don't look at me like that! You're the most talented person I've met and you dare look down on me and say those words! All these years, you kept beating and beating me at almost everything! There was no stopping you, and everyone looked at me like I wasn't meant to be there alongside you! Everyone looked at me and saw trash clinging to some shining and glittering example of humanity! Yet you still throw your pity at me, like I'm some helpless fool! I don't need it… I don't deserve it! You stupid onna!"

As if his words were their signal, both Izumi and Katsuki charged forward for a final clash. As Izumi seemingly readied her hook fan to potentially bring Katsuki down in a reverse hold, Katsuki readied another powerful burst of explosion, this time to hit her directly.

But characteristic of Izumi, her face morphed to a sly grin. "Now, Ocha-chan!" Izumi used the hook fan to redirect Katsuki's explosion towards the ceiling and threw the bombs she'd readied into the path of the explosion. By the time Katsuki noticed everything it was too late. The exploding boy sent up his second strongest explosion of the day which then triggered Izumi's mini-bombs and multiplied the intensity by 3 fold. The resulting explosion ripped a hole clear to the sky from their 4th floor to the bomb's room on the 5th.

Above them Uraraka took hold of the pillar shook loose by the explosion, using her Gravity quirk, canceled the pillar's gravity. "Improvised special move—Comet Home Run!" The debris that Katsuki and Izumi sent flying was then hit by Uraraka and her overly huge concrete bat to direct the flying debris towards Iida.

"You call that a home run?!" Iida shouted as he tried and shielded himself and completely forgetting about Uraraka. The gravity girl then took the chance to jump alongside the projectiles she sent over, canceling her personal gravity and tried the same move she was unable to finish earlier.

With a quick release, Uraraka found herself clinging to the paper-mâché bomb. Iida's horrified scream of "The weapon…!" echoed through the hole that Katsuki and Izumi created.

Katsuki stared, almost speechless at the hole above them. "That's what… From the start, you were… You're looking down on me again, aren't you!" His voice echoed the frustration he felt at being his own downfall at her machinations again.

"Never. I have never looked down on you." Izumi's voice was quivering from exhaustion. Her arms were crossed to shield her face; one had the opened white tessen which was used as a shield, the other locked in position to reinforce and brace her other arm from shattering from the stunt she pulled. The hook fan was blasted apart from the explosion she redirected using the tool. "It's because you're so amazing that I knew that no strength of mine alone could stand up to you. Not now when we have this carte blanche on our tools and weapons."

As the smoke cleared up more, Katsuki looked a bit horrified that some of the shards from the broken hook fan had bit into Izumi's arms, destroying the gloves Inko got Izumi. "I'm useless, compared to everybody else. So I have to use my tricks, or else I'll be left behind… again."

And as the clock ticked down to zero, All Might's voice sounded through the public speakers, "Hero… Hero team…" Izumi falls to her knees clutching her serrated arm in agony.

"WIIIIIIIIINS!"


End file.
